Gary C. Bryner - Böcker

This book explores the state of rights in America, examines their roots, assesses their effectiveness, discusses their future, and considers how the experience of the U.S. in defining and securing rights can serve as an important source of ideas for other countries. Written by philosophers, legal scholars, and political scientists, the essays contained here consider how well constitutional rights have accomplished their purpose of securing basic liberties over the past 200 years and how well suited they are to protect our individual rights in the future, perhaps the next 200 years.

In the two hundred years since ratification of the Constitution, government regulation of American society has grown enormously in both scope and complexity. The Framers, who made short work of regulation with the simple admonition that "Congress shall have the power To... regulate Commerce," would surely blanch at the extent to which those few words have since been interpreted. Beyond mere immensity, one wonders if they could have foreseen the degree to which broad bureaucratic discretion would threaten the constitutionally based separation of powers, rule of law, and individual rights-or, on the other hand, to what extent unchecked administrative oversight and political manipulation could threaten regulatory efficiency and effectiveness.In this volume eight prominent scholars representing the disciplines of political science, government, law, and philosophy analyze and debate with each other different aspects of government regulation, and the problems generated thereby, from a constitutional perspective. Topics include the growth, scope, and range of government regulation; regulation as it is affected by liberal thought and action; the paradox posed by the dangers to society of zealous regulatory efforts to protect it; a philosophical analysis of the preconditions for a free society; the expansion of public power through increased regulation at the expense of democratic accountability and control; expansion of judicial power to cope with regulatory rule making; the need to maintain the viability of private institutions, to include the family, in the face of increased regulation; the need for a renewed effort to assure that officials of the expanded regulatory structure have a sense of and carry out their duty to the American people; and competing views concerning how the Constitution should be interpreted regarding administrative decision making and judicial review.The Constitution and the Regulation of Society is the second of a three-volume series examining significant features of the Constitution. The series, inspired by the bicentennial of that great achievement, consists of essays presented by scholars at three conferences held at Brigham Young University in 1985, 1986, and 1987, and several additional essays written especially for these volumes. This volume includes in addition debate and discussion between the contributing scholars during the conference they attended.

" Gary Bryner's brief, readable, capstone book: " Features a forward by Mark A. Boyer Outlines the major environmental challenges facing the world today Applies international relations theory to these challenges Covers such key topics as development, sustainability, and market capitalism Offers a social justice perspective to environmental problems and solutions Borne of an amalgam of social science, fieldwork, and a passionate commitment to justice, this book brings debates about climate change to a new level, compelling readers and researchers to rethink the reasons for reversing global environmental trends. The book lays out three inspirations for improving environmental prospects: effective markets, sustainable development, and environmental justice for the most vulnerable. It also projects three possible scenarios flowing from the success or failure of these inspirations one bleak, one breakthrough, and one of status quo. Gary Bryner is not sanguine about humanity s ability to make the right choices, but this does not deter him from asking us to think beyond our own generation and our own species in urging environmental action now."