Bruce Pardy, a law professor at Queens University in Ontario, published an article back in July, “How the American Republic Became a Managerial State.” It’s a long read – but well worth taking the time.
He starts with the “necessary and proper clause”- he describes it as “the federal government’s blank check” and tells how the tenth amendment failed to put the genie back in the bottle.
Pardy describes the rise of untouchable civil servants with the Pendleton Act in 1883 – a decision made after Charlie Guiteau assassinated President Garfield. The key sentence in this section is “But the Pendleton Act and its successors did not end cronyism in the federal service. Instead, it shifted appointment powers from the president to the heads of departments and agencies.”
He goes on to the Flexner report in 1910 – this was news to me, but the Flexner report led to ” The medical profession became a cartel. Competition for the pharmaceutical industry was stamped out. The Flexner Report helped to create a top-down, standardized system of healthcare in North America.”
Next he hits on Woodrow Wilson and the Federal Reserve – “In 1935, in Humprey’s Executor v United States, the Supreme Court confirmed that commissioners of independent agencies could be dismissed only for cause, removing them from direct presidential control. That precedent stood until June 29, 2026, when the Court overturned Humphrey to allow President Donald Trump to fire Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter from the FTC without cause. The majority opinion found that the FTC exercises executive power. Therefore, said the judgment, its commissioners are subject to removal at the pleasure of the President, in accordance with the separation of powers established in the Constitution.” At this stage, I’d like to encourage you to go to https://brucepardy.substack.com/p/how-the-american-republic-became and read Pardy’s entire article. I tend to follow a lot of Canadian political writers and thinkers – living 25 mile south of the border gives me a bit more commonality with parts of Canada.
If you haven’t clicked the link and are still reading my article, I’m going to continue to try push for reading Pardy directly – we really do have a Canadian law professor doing a better job of analyzing the American Republic’s path than I’ve seen elsewhere.
He describes the results of bringing in the federal income tax with the sixteenth amendment. I read this section, and felt that we might well improve our country by treating it like the 18th amendment – repealed by the 21st. Reading Pardy’s article shows me that our elected representatives tend to pass laws that look good with a shallow examination, but deeper analysis would show how they harm the citizenry and the nation.
Pardy’s last section is titled “The managerial state’s pinnacle achievement, so far: COVID-19.” I suspect that the only new message is looking at the Covid decisions as a pinnacle achievement. Click the link, and read Pardy’s whole article – he researches and understands American government much better than most of the Canadian (or American) politicians.
Pardy quoted Ben Franklin – “A republic, if you can keep it.” He concludes that we couldn’t.
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