Electing our king

During the debate over ratification of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton and his Federalists argued for “energy in the executive”—a strong president who would set the national agenda and be the center of legislative and policy initiative in the national government. Fears of just such executive power were one arrow in the quiver of the Anti-Federalists. For the first century and a half of our national life, the balance of power and influence shifted between president and Congress; the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War brought us to what now seems the final resolution of the argument. Hamilton won.  Read more