Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy

Show #270 | Guests: Prof. William Howell and Prof. Terry Moe | Show Summary: Donald Trump, elected in a populist uprising, has eschewed the normal conventions of politics. But the idea of what’s “normal” needs to be examined in its own light. For example – “normally”, laws are drafted in Congress and sent to the President for signature. What if that were a two-way street? What if the President could propose legislation for Congress to approve? William Howell is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago; he’s the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the university’s Harris School of Public Policy. Terry Moe is at Stanford University, where he’s the Wm Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. Together they’ve created an audacious proposal: what if we looked at the reality of “normal” politics – deadlocked, partisan, vulnerable to the worst of populist instincts – and literally rejiggered the Constitution to fix it? Their book is Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy.