Improving checks and balances on U.S. presidential power seems like an important, neglected, and tractable cause area.
Importance: There is a risk that U.S. federal government policy will become erratic, since each president can easily reverse the previous president’s executive actions (for example, Biden reversed many of Trump’s EOs during his first few weeks of office). The uncertainty makes it hard to reliably adapt to policy changes (this is a recognized challenge for businesses, and also applies to other interest groups, such as LGBTQ+ people, refugees, and immigrants). Also, while strong executive leadership is important for enabling the federal government to address certain challenges, such as international relations and infrastructure, it can also be misused, such as when Trump shared top-secret intelligence with the Russian government.
Neglectedness: Although many voters care about holding the government accountable (just ask them whether they think the U.S. is “corrupt”), it seems unlikely that they will specifically advocate for curbs on presidential power, as it’s a “wonky” policy proposal. There are a few advocacy groups working on curbing executive authority, such as Protect Democracy, but I’d be surprised if there were more than 10.
Tractability: There are concrete proposals for curbing presidential power; some of them seem like they could gain bipartisan support, such as increasing controls on financial conflicts of interest. The goal is to turn informal norms that presidents were merely expected to follow into enforceable laws, since the Trump presidency has shown that informal norms can and will be broken.
In my opinion, while the media has focused a lot on Trump’s tax returns, requiring presidents to disclose their tax returns seems to have more symbolic significance than actual value in holding presidents accountable.
Improving checks and balances on U.S. presidential power seems like an important, neglected, and tractable cause area.
Importance: There is a risk that U.S. federal government policy will become erratic, since each president can easily reverse the previous president’s executive actions (for example, Biden reversed many of Trump’s EOs during his first few weeks of office). The uncertainty makes it hard to reliably adapt to policy changes (this is a recognized challenge for businesses, and also applies to other interest groups, such as LGBTQ+ people, refugees, and immigrants). Also, while strong executive leadership is important for enabling the federal government to address certain challenges, such as international relations and infrastructure, it can also be misused, such as when Trump shared top-secret intelligence with the Russian government.
Neglectedness: Although many voters care about holding the government accountable (just ask them whether they think the U.S. is “corrupt”), it seems unlikely that they will specifically advocate for curbs on presidential power, as it’s a “wonky” policy proposal. There are a few advocacy groups working on curbing executive authority, such as Protect Democracy, but I’d be surprised if there were more than 10.
Tractability: There are concrete proposals for curbing presidential power; some of them seem like they could gain bipartisan support, such as increasing controls on financial conflicts of interest. The goal is to turn informal norms that presidents were merely expected to follow into enforceable laws, since the Trump presidency has shown that informal norms can and will be broken.
In my opinion, while the media has focused a lot on Trump’s tax returns, requiring presidents to disclose their tax returns seems to have more symbolic significance than actual value in holding presidents accountable.
Further reading:
Reining in growing powers of the presidency: Two White House vets say experience with President Trump highlights need for long-overdue curbs (Harvard Gazette, 20 November 2020)
Mike Berkowitz on keeping the U.S. a liberal democratic country (80,000 Hours Podcast, 20 April 2021)