The Collapse of Fortress Bush: The Crisis of Authority in American Government

by Alasdair Roberts

When the Bush presidency began to collapse, pundits were quick to tell a tale of the "imperial presidency" gone awry, a story of secretive, power-hungry ideologues who guided an arrogant president down the road to ruin. But the inside story of the failures of the Bush administration is both much more complex and alarming, says leading policy analyst Alasdair Roberts. In the most comprehensive, balanced view of the Bush presidency to date, Roberts...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081477606X
• ISBN13: 9780814776063
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Honest and Perceptive

This book has a lot to offer, but if like me you have a left-wing tilt, you will find it occasionally irritating. Professor Roberts clearly has a conservative bias. Here are some examples: On page 4 he claims that the Bush Administration "was attentive to the prerogatives of state governments...." His claim is given the lie by No Child Left Behind and by the Administration's opposition to state initiatives on medical marijuana and euthanasia. On page 59 he claims the Administration followed a policy of "spending restraint." Spending restraint? The Bush Administration? On page 120 he talks about Iran accelerating its nuclear weapons program. Iran may or may not have a nuclear weapons program. If Professor Roberts had said Iran probably has a nuclear weapons program, I could not protest; but to be certain Iran does shows a mind in the grip of conservative doctrine on this point. I could give further examples. Professor Roberts spends much effort putting in historical context the Bush Administration's response to 9-11. His discussion is valuable. For example, you need to know what happened to Eugene Debs in World War I (and many similar cases) for a full understanding of what we can expect from the Supreme Court and the Constitution. I think he proves his point, that in historically analogous crises, the Constitution was mauled much more roughly. If this were all, his book would stand as just another competent exercise in right-wing apologetics. For Professor Roberts, though, this is where things get interesting. He argues that the Bush Administration has been careful not to trespass publicly on the rights of US citizens, with only a handful of exceptions. But foreigners are another matter. For them, the Bush Administration has been "brutal." Professor Roberts asks why. His answer is that a formidable institutional structure has grown up to protect the rights of citizens and the Bush Administration did not want to take it on. No such structure protects the rights of foreigners. (If you think the Constitution only protects citizens, then try to establish a slave market dealing in illegal aliens and see what happens to you.) So the Bush Administration's default position is that a foreigner suspected of terrorism has no rights whatever. And it has acted accordingly. The Bush Administration was likewise unwilling to use government regulatory power to force improved security for chemical facilities, containers, etc. In this case, of course, its refusal could have been dictated by its political and ideological leanings. But Professor Robert's point is that even a liberal administration would have come up against institutional and technical resistance to regulation. Like everyone else, he sees the Bush Administration as incompetent at management. As a Professor of Public Administration he has more to offer than mere accusations of personal incompetence. For example, if the Administration wanted to get its policies carried out and institutionalized,