Absolute power Quote by Philip Hamburger

““Indeed, they embraced a tradition that was notorious for its incompatibility with American law and liberty. The connection between absolute and administrative power was not a secret. In the most prominent book on constitutional law of the late nineteenth century, Dicey began by observing that “the views of the prerogative maintained by Crown lawyers under the Tudors and the Stuarts bear a marked resemblance to the legal and administrative ideas which at the present day under the Third Republic still support the droit administratif of France.”82 The Americans who espoused administrative power, however, had little patience for history and even less for law. As has been seen, they preferred to speak in German-derived sociological terms about functional realities and about the historical inevitability of administrative power in modern society. Like their German intellectual forbears, moreover, they dismissed constitutional obstacles as mere formalities, usually with a tone of contempt. It is a style that has not altogether passed.83 That governments seek power, including absolute power, should be no surprise. What is disappointing is that so many Americans drew upon absolutist ideas without pausing to consider the significance of their civilian and German heritage or why such ideas had been rejected by Anglo-American constitutional law.””

— Philip Hamburger