قانون الجمهور

The book “The Law of the People” is a theory and history of democracy in the American administrative state. The book describes how American Progressive thinkers—such as John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Woodrow Wilson—developed a democratic understanding of the state out of their study of Hegelian political thought. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel understood the state as an institution that organizes society in a way that serves freedom. This normative conception of the state distinguished his view from those of later German theorists, such as Max Weber, who adopted a technocratic conception of bureaucracy, and others, such as Carl Schmitt, who prioritized the will of the chief executive. Progressives embraced Hegel's vision of the link between bureaucracy and freedom, but sought to democratize his concept of the state. They agreed that social welfare services, economic regulation, and formal discretion were necessary to ensure conditions for self-determination. But they stressed the need for the people to participate effectively in administrative policy-making. This progressive ideal influenced administrative programs during the New Deal period. The book also sheds light on interventions in the War on Poverty and Reconstruction II, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. The book develops a normative theory of the state based on this intellectual and institutional history, with implications for deliberative democracy theory, constitutional theory, and administrative law. On this view, the administrative state should provide regulation and social services through deliberative procedures, rather than linking its legitimacy to the authority of the president or economic logic.