The Executive

The executive branch is the part of government that implements policy, enforces the law, and, in many cases, plays a key role in initiating the law-making process. Constitutionally, it holds preeminent authority over the other branches, controls emergency powers, possesses supreme command over the military, and, generally, it alone can act in the name of the whole. While liberal democratic constitutions by and large have given more power to presidents and prime ministers than that possessed by feudal monarchs, there is now widespread agreement that this branch of democratic government is everywhere moving in the direction of even greater concentration of power and increasing arbitrariness, not to mention increasing subordination to the corporate sector. Why liberal democratic executive branches were initially granted these powers, why there has been almost continuous universal expansion of executive power, what this development means for liberal democracy, and how the ‘permanent executive’ is the key to understanding the nature of modern democracy are the main questions addressed here.