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This book argues that many of the basic concepts that we use to describe and analyze our governmental system are out of date. Developed in large part during the Middle Ages, they fail to confront the administrative character of modern government.
These concepts, which include power, discretion, democracy, legitimacy, law, rights, and property, bear the indelible imprint of this bygone era's attitudes, and Arthurian fantasies, about governance. As a result, they fail to provide us with the tools we need to understand, critique, and improve the government we actually possess.
Beyond Camelot explains the causes and character of this failure, and then proposes a new conceptual framework, drawn from management science and engineering, which describes our administrative government more accurately, and identifies its weaknesses instead of merely bemoaning its modernity.
This book's proposed framework envisions government as a network of connected units that are authorized by superior units and that supervise subordinate ones. Instead of using inherited, emotion-laden concepts like democracy and legitimacy to describe the relationship between these units and private citizens, it directs attention to the particular interactions between these units and the citizenry, and to the mechanisms by which government obtains its citizens' compliance. Instead of speaking about law and legal rights, it proposes that we address the way that the modern state formulates policy and secures its implementation. Instead of perpetuating outdated ideas that we no longer really believe about the sanctity of private property, it suggests that we focus on the way that resources are allocated in order to establish markets as our means of regulation. Highly readable, Beyond Camelot offers an insightful and provocative discussion of how we must transform our understanding of government to keep pace with the transformation that government itself has undergone.
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About the Author:
Edward L. Rubin is dean of Vanderbilt University Law School. He is the author of Judicial Policymaking and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons and Federalism: A Theoretical Inquiry, both with Malcolm Feeley. He has served as a legal consultant to the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China.
Review:
"Anyone who desires to understand modern government should read Beyond Camelot."---Brian Z. Tamanaha, Law and Politics Book Review
"This ambitious work offers a refreshing, insightful reconceptualization of the modern administrative state. . . . [A] beautifully written contribution." (Harvard Law Review)
"[A] fascinating and provocative book. . . . Rubin is to be congratulated. Beyond Camelot is an extraordinary effort, brilliant in places; it is certain to provoke a great deal of thought and suggest numerous avenues of future research."---Howard Schweber, Journal of Politics
"This ambitious work offers a refreshing, insightful reconceptualization of the modern administrative state. . . . [A] beautifully written contribution." (Harvard Law Review)
"[A] fascinating and provocative book. . . . Rubin is to be congratulated. Beyond Camelot is an extraordinary effort, brilliant in places; it is certain to provoke a great deal of thought and suggest numerous avenues of future research."---Howard Schweber, Journal of Politics
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPrinceton University Press
- Publication date2005
- ISBN 10 0691118086
- ISBN 13 9780691118086
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages496
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Beyond Camelot. Rethinking Politics and Law for the Modern State.
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Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2005.
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0691118086
ISBN 13: 9780691118086
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. First Edition. viii, 471 pp. Original cloth. Review copy ink stamp on bottom edge (standard practice now for Princeton), else Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket. 'This book argues that many of the basic concepts that we use to describe and analyze our governmental system are out of date. Developed in large part during the Middle Ages, they fail to confront the administrative character of modern government. These concepts, which include power, discretion, democracy, legitimacy, law, rights, and property, bear the indelible imprint of this bygone era's attitudes, and Arthurian fantasies, about governance. As a result, they fail to provide us with the necessary tools for understanding, critiquing and improving the government we actually possess. Beyond Camelot explains the causes and character of this failure, and then proposes a new conceptual framework, drawn from management science and engineering, which describes our administrative government more accurately, and identifies its weaknesses instead of merely bemoaning its modernity. This book's proposed framework envisions government as a network of connected units that are authorized by superior units and that supervise subordinate ones. Instead of using inherited, emotion-laden concepts like democracy and legitimacy to describe the relationship between these units and private citizens, it directs attention to the particular interactions between these units and the citizenry, and to the mechanisms by which government obtains its citizens' compliance. Instead of speaking about law and legal rights, it proposes that we address the way that the modern state formulates policy and secures its implementation. Instead of perpetuating outdated ideas that we no longer really believe about the sanctity of private property, it suggests that we focus on the way that resources are allocated in order to establish markets as our means of regulation. Highly readable, Beyond Camelot offers an insightful and provocative discussion of how we must transform our understanding of government to keep pace with the transformation that government itself has undergone' (Princeton University Press Web site). Seller Inventory # 16359
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Beyond Camelot Rethinking politics and Law for the Modern State. 2005.Princeton University Press . Hardcover with d.j. viii,471pp. References. Index.
Published by
Princeton University Press
(2005)
ISBN 10: 0691118086
ISBN 13: 9780691118086
Used
Hardcover
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Condition: Gebraucht / Used. Fine state. d595e. Seller Inventory # 75114
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