It’s a curious irony. Those who have constantly warned of Donald Trump’s authoritarian menace are naturally attracted to proposals that limit executive power and revitalize the separation of powers. Yet when those same observers envision a Biden-Harris administration stuck with a Republican-controlled Senate, they yearn for a presidency with far more power, not less. William Howell and Terry Moe, professors of political science at the University of Chicago and Stanford respectively, appear to solve this paradox in “Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy.” Mr. Trump’s brand of populism, they argue, presents an existential threat to American democracy, and there is every reason to expect imitators after Mr. Trump leaves the stage. But this populism thrives only because America’s government is so woefully ineffective at dealing with the serious challenges of modern life. Our best chance to make it more effective, in their view, is to build up the big-thinking presidency at the expense of a myopic and parochial Congress.
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