Author of Life Without Lawyers and The Death of Common Sense argues that laws have piled up over the past decades like sediment in the harbor, bogging down America in dense regulation, unaffordable health care, and higher taxes and public debt. Ten well-intentioned laws – that regulate civil service, special education, environmental review, subsidies from the New Deal, safety, due process in schools, labor union benefits, and corporate subsidies – have ossified over time into special interest entitlements and become deadweights on society. Describes a new approach to refreshing old programs and restoring the authority of sitting leaders to make the choices needed today.

(GOVERNMENT * LAWS AS SOCIAL DEADWEIGHTS * REGULATION QUESTIONED)

A conservative political theorist who believes in the bankruptcy of the modern welfare state challenges rigid concepts of both left and right. He calls for an end to the monopolization of society by the state, the culture of welfare dependency, and the economics of dispossession, and presents a plan for redistributing the tax burden and restorating the family as the source of social stability.

(GOVERNMENT * WELFARE STATE QUESTIONED)

Treating socialism as an ethic and reclaiming its early intellectual foundations while acknowledging and correcting its inherent flaws, Bronner advances a more robust theory of working class politics for the 21st century as “a genuinely progressive politics.” The new introduction examines the revival of socialist theory and the evolution of labor politics over the past three decades.

(SOCIALISM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY)

On the substance of this political movement and the constitutional principles on which it is founded. Foley, a “recovering liberal,” distills the raison d’etre of the Tea Party movement down to three principles: limited government, unapologetic US sovereignty, and constitutional originalism. She explains that the principles have legitimate constitutional grounding and argues that the Tea Party is neither conservative nor liberal, but uniquely American.

(GOVERNMENT * TEA PARTY)

Racism was an important factor in 2008; if not for racism, Barack Obama would have won in a landslide. Analyzes the nomination battle between Obama and Clinton to show that racial identity matters more in electoral politics than gender identity. Racial resentment – a modern form of racism that has superseded the old-fashioned biological variety – is a potent political force.

(ELECTIONS AND RACE * RACE AND ELECTIONS * “RACIAL RESENTMENT”)

The US Constitution contains some potentially fatal weaknesses surrounding presidential selection, replacement, or punishment that could lead to constitutional controversies. Envisions six such controversies – such as the criminal prosecution of a sitting president or the ousting of an allegedly disabled president – to show that constitutional interpretation would carries enormous consequences, which requires clear neutral rules rather than a might-makes-right process of resolving the situation. (also as e-book)

(CONSTITUTION: U.S. WEAKNESSES * GOVERNMENT)

Grassroots Tea Partiers – who are mostly white, older, and middle class – typically support Social Security, Medicare, and generous benefits for military veterans, despite their professed hatred of “big government.” Tea Partiers are hostile to paying taxes to help people they consider “undeserving,” and worry about claims made by immigrants and younger people. Tea Party networks tie free-market elites and funders to energized citizens who attend regular meetings, lobby legislators, and get out the vote. Although its popular appeal is limited to older conservatives, the Tea Party has shaken American politics by pulling the Republican Party sharply to the right.

(REPUBLICANS AND THE TEA PARTY * TEA PARTY)

The once-staid world of copyright law now resembles a religious battleground – one that pits extremists who dismiss the entire system against those who argue for ever-stronger laws. To help bridge this divide, Patry recommends abandoning the faith-based approach and instead create effective copyright laws fit for their purpose. Topics include why we don’t have effective copyright laws, whether incentives and deterrence work, abandoning our obsession with exclusive rights in favor of ensuring authors get paid, figuring out the proper length of copyright and the role of formalities, and encouraging socially useful but unauthorized use.

(COPYRIGHT LAW RECONSIDERED)

Dozens of international institutions (e.g., the International Court of Justice) cast a legal net across the globe, presenting an unavoidable challenge to American constitutional law, particularly the separation of power between branches of federal government and between Washington and the states. To reconcile the demands of globalization with the formal constitutional structure, we must reconceptualize the constitution and embrace three “mediating devices”: 1) non-self-execution of treaties, 2) recognition of the President’s power to terminate international agreements and interpret international law, and 3) reliance on state implementation of international law and agreements.

(INTERNATIONAL LAW AND U.S. CONSTITUTION * CONSTITUTION * GOVERNMENT)

Sustained growth depends on innovation. The “double trust dilemma of development” focuses on the relationship between innovators and investors: the innovator must trust the investor with his idea and the investor must trust the innovator with the money. Argues that effective property, contract, and business laws help unite capital and ideas. Ineffective private and business laws are the root cause of the poverty in nations in today’s world.

(DEVELOPMENT AND LAW * LAW AND DEVELOPMENT * INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT)