Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide - Softcover

Sunstein, Cass R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0674983793 ISBN 13: 9780674983793

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2017

Synopsis

“Sunstein has written the story of impeachment every citizen needs to know. This is a remarkable, essential book.” ―Doris Kearns Goodwin

As Benjamin Franklin famously put it, Americans have a republic, if we can keep it. Preserving the Constitution and the democratic system it supports is the public’s responsibility. One route the Constitution provides for discharging that duty―a route rarely traveled―is impeachment.

Cass R. Sunstein provides a succinct citizen’s guide to an essential tool of self-government. He illuminates the constitutional design behind impeachment and emphasizes the people’s role in holding presidents accountable. Despite intense interest in the subject, impeachment is widely misunderstood. Sunstein identifies and corrects a number of misconceptions. For example, he shows that the Constitution, not the House of Representatives, establishes grounds for impeachment, and that the president can be impeached for abuses of power that do not violate the law. Even neglect of duty counts among the “high crimes and misdemeanors” delineated in the republic’s foundational document. Sunstein describes how impeachment helps make sense of our constitutional order, particularly the framers’ controversial decision to install an empowered executive in a nation deeply fearful of kings.

With an eye toward the past and the future, Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide considers a host of actual and imaginable arguments for a president’s removal, explaining why some cases are easy and others hard, why some arguments for impeachment have been judicious and others not. In direct and approachable terms, it dispels the fog surrounding impeachment so that Americans of all political convictions may use their ultimate civic authority wisely.

About this title

About the Author:

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard, where he is founder and director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. He is the most cited law professor in the United States and probably the world. He has served as Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and as a member of the President’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies. Winner of the 2018 Holberg Prize, Sunstein is a columnist for Bloomberg View and a frequent adviser to governments all over the world. His many books include the bestseller Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler), Simpler: The Future of Government, and Republic.com.

Review:

“With insight, wisdom, affection, and concern, Sunstein has written the story of impeachment every citizen needs to know. This is a remarkable, essential book.”―Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Thoroughly grounded in constitutional history and past practice...Excellent.”―Noah Feldman and Jacob Weisberg, New York Review of Books

“Sunstein’s goal was to lay out a legal and historical framework for thinking about impeachment, independent of any specific president. I’ve been thinking about the topic a lot since finishing the book, and I want to recommend [it]...[It’s a] careful history of impeachment―of when the founders believed it was appropriate and necessary.”―David Leonhardt, New York Times

“Considering that the only executive branch event more unnerving for voters than impeachment is assassination, Sunstein’s book...is a surprisingly cheerful read.”―Sarah Vowell, New York Times

“Sunstein has written a concise, enlightening, and argumentative history and guide to getting rid of presidents...It’s more of a why-to and when-to, and a what-were-they-thinking-when-they-decided-to kind of book. Sunstein delves into the writings, speeches, and deliberations of America’s revolutionary generation.”―Carlos Lozada, Washington Post

“An elegant new monograph.”―Andrew Sullivan, New York Times Book Review

“A lively, compact, and authoritative account...[Sunstein] addresses the most intriguing questions posed by this little used but pivotal constitutional provision...Truly lives up to its promise of being ‘A Citizen’s Guide.’...Excellent.”―Stephen Rohde, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Explains the historical origins of the impeachment concept, and offers a checklist as to when the principle might be applied...Now, more than ever, cool heads are needed to safeguard the U.S. Republic: thank goodness for this book―and its handy impeachment checklist.”―Gillian Tett, Financial Times

“Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide offers edifying background for an argument that might soon be in need of eloquent, as well as passionate, delivery.”―Richard Blaustein, Los Angeles Review of Books

“A compact, concise, and highly relevant civics lesson. There have been a number of books published about impeachment, many of them partisan manifestoes. What makes Sunstein’s book of such great interest is its lack of fanfare and knife-sharpening. The author is a learned and accessible guide as he maneuvers his way through the history of democracy’s nuclear option...A welcome, timely, ideal primer.”―Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0674983793
• ISBN 13: 9780674983793
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208