ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 traces the development or growth of administrative power from 1789 up to the present. Focus is on the factors that contributed to the development of the very powerful administrative state. Specific attention is given to the actual power that public administrators exercise in various socioeconomic and political areas. It is made clear that agency administrators are very powerful today because Congress has delegated enormous policymaking powers to agency rulemakers, while the courts have deferred broadly to agency expertise. This development has taken place for practical reasons, yet it is stressed that this broad, discretionary agency power challenges the rule of law and our traditional constitutional design. This chapter also entertains public interest theory in the context of governmental regulation, especially in the context of regulation versus deregulation arguments.
