- Judicial Controls Over the Bureaucracy.
Mistrust towards the state is a perennial issue in politics. Liberal thinkers such as John Locke in his Second Treatise of Government (1690) searched for a compromise between the protective function of the state and the risks its power involved for individual rights and freedoms. In the face of this ambivalence towards the state, a reasoned acceptance of subjecting oneself to state power gave rise to the theories of the social contract. To preclude the arbitrary exercise of power, conditions were set that regulated, fixed boundaries, and legitimized it. The law provided the social technology initially for limited government and gradually for a reasoned and reasonable foundation of legitimate authority.
- Controlling the Federal Bureaucracy.
- Federal agency powers in the crosshairs at the US Supreme Court.
