Democracy and Executive Power

“[Rose-Ackerman] stresses that the real challenge is . . . to establish a public law that enhances the democratic accountability of bureaucrats and political appointees. . . . This book is a valuable advance in specificity with respect to principles and instruments [of executive policymaking]. . . . It will be of equal value to public lawyers and other social scientists interested in government.”—Giacinto della Cananea, French Yearbook of Public Law

“Makes an important case in favour of a more developed administrative law systems underlying a balanced participatory decision-making framework. . . . The book invites deep reflections on how administrative law can be refined in this sense and calls on comparative legal scholarship to analyse and address how those questions have been dealt with across the globe . . . [and] is to be read and discussed widely, both by theorists and practitioners of administrative law and by social planners looking to enhance the accountability of executive decision-making.”—Pieter van Cleynenbreughel, British Association of Comparative Law

Winner of the 2022 Gustav Ranis International Prize for Best Book, sponsored by Yale MacMillan Center

“Susan Rose-Ackerman has produced a valuable and insightful work that considers endemic issues of policy making accountability by the executive and the role of public participation in executive rule making in four countries.”—Paul Craig, St John’s College

“Given the precarious state of popular trust in government across the globe, this exceptional exploration of how four advanced democracies pursue legitimacy in the bureaucratic implementation of regulatory law makes an invaluable contribution.”—Peter M. Shane, author of Madison’s Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy

“Capstone of Susan Rose-Ackerman’s influential writings about comparative administrative law, her remarkable exploration of the democratic accountability of administrative governance in France, Germany, the UK and the US brings fresh and important understanding to the interactions among forms of government, the rule of law, and the contemporary urgency of maintaining democratic institutions.”—Peter Strauss, author of Administrative Justice in the United States

“Democracy and Executive Power reflects decades of Susan Rose-Ackerman’s profound thinking about how the rule of law, accountability, democracy, and participation relate to how most law is made in the world’s four most influential legal systems. Her argument is at once pro-bureaucratic, pro-legal, and pro-democratic. The book is essential reading for those seeking to understand and reform executive rule-making in any democracy.”—Jeff King, University College London