Joseph M. Bessette

1 month ago | claremontreviewofbooks.com | Daniel Mahoney |Andrew E. Busch |Joseph M. Bessette |William Voegeli

No, all hope cannot be pinned on science, technology, or economic growth. Victorious technological civilization has simultaneously instilled in us a spiritual insecurity. Certainly, its gifts enrich, but enslave us as well. All is interests, we must not neglect our interests, all is a struggle for material things; but an inner voice faintly prompts us that we’ve lost something pure, elevated—and fragile. We have ceased to see the purpose.

Oct 24, 2024 | aei.org | Joseph M. Bessette |Gary Schmitt

Key PointsMany critics of the Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity conclude that it shields the president from criminal prosecution if he uses his “official” powers to commit a crime. This overstates the six-member majority’s holding. The key distinction is between “official” and “unofficial” acts.

Oct 20, 2024 | thepublicdiscourse.com | Joseph M. Bessette

In his recent essay in Public Discourse, Dennis Uhlman makes a variety of arguments against the death penalty. Some of these are indictments of the American criminal justice system as a whole: e.g., there is too much plea bargaining, poor defendants cannot afford the best defense attorneys, public defenders are “overworked and under-resourced,” we rely too much on eyewitness testimony, and the system takes too little account of the effect of childhood trauma on future criminality.

May 20, 2024 | aei.org | Gary Schmitt |Joseph M. Bessette

The essay is a comprehensive examination of the employment of executive authority in the states, under the Continental Congress, and the Congress of the Article of Confederation from 1775 to the Constitutional Convention. It details the growing appreciation for a single, unitary executive both to give balance to frames of government based on the principle of separation of powers and the need for specific institutional capacities for the effective and responsible functioning of government.

Mar 4, 2024 | claremontreviewofbooks.com | Joseph M. Bessette |Helen Andrews |Christopher Flannery |Forrest Nabors

Some years ago, when co-authoring a textbook on American government, I calculated the rise in federal spending between 1932, the year before Franklin Roosevelt launched his New Deal, and 2012. Over these eight decades, total federal spending rose from just over $5 billion to $3.8 trillion. Domestic expenditures rose from $2.3 billion to $2.8 trillion.