Social Philosophy and Policy

Table of Contents - July 2012 - Volume 29, Issue 02 (Natural Rights Individualism and Progressivism in American Political Philosophy)  

Research Article

ON THE SEPARATION OF POWERS: LIBERAL AND PROGRESSIVE CONSTITUTIONALISM

Michael Zuckerta1

a1 Political Science, University of Notre Dame

Abstract

One of the main targets of Progressive constitutional critique was the system of separation of powers. Woodrow Wilson was especially critical of that feature of American constitutionalism. As has been noted by others, Wilson wanted to replace the separation of powers with the conceptual and institutional distinction between politics and administration. Wilson, however, had an extremely truncated and on the whole inaccurate view of the point and intended operation of separation of powers, as an examination of the doctrine in the philosophy of John Locke demonstrates.

Michael Zuckert is Nancy R. Dreux Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has written extensively on the liberal tradition in political philosophy and American constitutionalism. He is the author of several books, including The Natural Rights Republic (1996), Launching Liberalism: John Locke and the Liberal Tradition (2002), and, most recently, Natural Rights and American Constitutionalism (2011).