Nurturing the Imperial Presidency

Wishing to be helpful, Nurturing the Imperial Presidency by Brien Hallett illuminates the 5,000-year-old invariant practice of executive war-making. Why has the nation's war leader always decided and declared war? Substituting a speech act approach for the traditional separation of powers" approach, Hallett argues that he who controls the drafting of the declaration of war also controls the decision to go to war. Since legislated "authorization to use force" are based upon "a collective judgement and agreement" between executive and legislative branches, such legislative vetoes in no way hinder executive control of either the drafting of the declaration or the decision. Innovative ways to deny the executive its ability to draft the declaration and, hence, to decide are proposed"--