Ungoverning: The Attack on the Administrative State and the Politics of Chaos
By Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum
Princeton University Press, 280 pages
Published October 1, 2024
Something new and disturbing is afoot in America’s political life. Russell Muirhead and Nancy Rosenblum make a powerful and compelling case that America’s “ungoverning” may lead to a national government so weak that no party or leader can govern. In our two-party democracy, we expect that one party will oppose the other’s policies, slow their efforts and replace their politically appointed leaders with its own. The anticipated result of these maneuvers is that, when the former opposition next assumes office, they will govern as they see fit. But what if one party and its leader systematically “ungovern”; that is, undermine the ability of the governmental apparatus to operate in the future by challenging the legitimacy of public institutions, questioning the value of the very functions of government, maintaining a drumbeat of grievance, and placing people in authority with a commitment to undo rather than do?
Muirhead and Rosenblum trace ungoverning from its first intimations in the Reagan administration to its full-blown manifestations in last fall’s campaign. A politics of chaos supplants the workings of democratic institutions, however flawed they may be. In the authors’ words, “That is the threat – not the specter of a fiercely effective totalitarian state, but the threat to liberal democracy that comes from the willful degradation of a well-developed state.”
While Muirhead and Rosenblum provide a thorough account, it would have been helpful to place this deliberate delegitimization of American political institutions within the context of the dramatic loss of faith in America’s non-political institutions — the media, faith communities, universities and voluntary organizations in general. Might the erosion of our respect for these other once-revered institutions have weakened our capacity and resolve to save their political counterparts?
As a lifelong civil servant, I worked daily with smart and caring people who interpreted laws and promoted the greatest benefit for those affected. At times, the authors mourn the lack of attention we give to public administration and the study of the administrative state. We are reminded once more: we don’t know what we’ve got ’til it’s gone.
Ungoverning will generate spirited discussion that will likely spill over into institutions other than our political ones — among them, congregations and denominations. But it is just one of a frenzy of books and articles that have emerged in the last decade, all predicting the end days of American democracy. As Christians, we must be alert to the dangers these publications seek to unearth, but how do we separate the wheat of genuine threat from the chaff of false alarm? Muirhead and Rosenblum make a good-faith effort to document what has already happened and to chart the likely results.
American institutions need changing, but the question remains: What form should that change take? We depend on flawed institutions to take us where we want to go, yet those institutions need not be as flawed as they are. Perhaps we should harken back to one of the less triumphant verses of “America, the Beautiful”: “America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!”
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