{"id":8951,"date":"2017-04-11T03:53:54","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T03:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=8951"},"modified":"2017-04-12T03:59:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T03:59:57","slug":"do-ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-have-too-much-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/do-ivanka-trump-and-jared-kushner-have-too-much-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner have too much power?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry F. (Chip) Carey<\/a>, Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Much attention has been focused recently on President Trump\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d foreign policy. \"The<\/p>\n

This policy change is symbolized by the U.S. missile attack on Syria’sShayrat airfield<\/a>, which followed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s alleged chemical weapon attack on rebels in that country\u2019s Idlib province.<\/p>\n

The National Security Council has also been restructured. Former Director Michael Flynn resigned after lying<\/a> about his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Deputy K.T. McFarland was cashiered<\/a> and became<\/a>U.S. ambassador-designate to Singapore<\/a>. They have been replaced by retired General H. R. McMaster<\/a> as director, and his deputy for strategy, Dina Powell. The removal of Trump adviser Steve Bannon from the principals committee of the council also represents an apparent move to follow more traditional foreign policy-making.<\/p>\n

What is driving this apparently positive change? The movement toward an apparently more traditional approach suggests the greater influence of Trump\u2019s daughter Ivanka, who was recently named a regular employee of the White House<\/a>, and her husband Jared Kushner, a senior adviser to the president over Bannon. Both may be trying to repair what \u201cThe Gatekeepers\u201d author Chris Whipple<\/a> has called \u201cthe most dysfunctional White House chief of staff and presidency in U.S. history.\u201d <\/p>\n

The two family members have strengthened a White House faction Bannon describes, not admiringly, as the \u201cNew Yorkers\u201d or simply \u201cGoldman Sachs.\u201d Bannon himself leads an opposing faction<\/a> that is more nationalist, isolationist and populist.<\/p>\n

However this rivalry plays out, what has been clear during the \u201choneymoon phase\u201d of the Trump presidency is that influential individuals have created an incoherent, impulsive style of governance, dominated by personal decision-making processes, such as the overnight decision to bomb Syria. This spasmodic style, ignoring interagency reviews, is new in the modern presidency, even among presidents like Kennedy and Clinton, who involved family members in their administrations. Trump relies on personal relationships, rather than the institutions of democracy.<\/p>\n

As a comparative political scientist who studies different types of governments, I\u2019m interested in how personal rule linked to family can erode democratic institutions in favor of authoritarianism. Academics call this \u201csultanism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

What sultanism means<\/h2>\n

It was over a century ago that the famous political sociologist Max Weber developed the concept of sultanism, which, he wrote, \u201coperates primarily on the basis of discretion.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n 35th sultan of the Ottoman Empire and 114th caliph of Islam, Mehmed V.<\/span>
\n Library of Congress<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSultans,\u201d or kings, of the Ottoman Empire were absolute rulers, their power made legitimate by theology. They used arbitrary and despotic powers. Their lifestyles were lavish and decadent.<\/a> And over time they lost their power. While rival European empires such as the Hapsburgs\u2019 Austro-Hungary and Weber\u2019s native Germany were rising<\/a> in the 19th century as they developed impressive civil and military bureaucracies and procedures, the Ottoman Empire was declining. <\/p>\n

Alfred Stepan and the late Juan J. Linz of Columbia University argued<\/a> that sultanism is both a regime type (like democracy and authoritarianism) and an adjective describing a style of personal rule that is possible under all regime types, including democracy. They wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe essence of sultanism is unrestrained personal rulership \u2026 unconstrained by ideology, rational-legal norms, or any balance of power.\u201d
\nSultanism, in other words, is most common under authoritarian and autocratic rule, but it can also be present in democracies, when leaders personalize decision-making instead of following established institutional or legal processes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n \"\"
\n \u2018Papa Doc\u2019 Duvalier of Haiti in 1968.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some might assume it irrelevant to compare any U.S. leader to classic sultanistic rulers<\/a> such as the Duvaliers<\/a> of Haiti, Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines or Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. These regimes were nondemocratic and dominated by a single personality with family members intensely involved. <\/p>\n

However, like the U.S., South Korea is a democracy and its president, Park Geun-hye, was impeached Dec. 9<\/a> for corrupt activities, many connected to a close family adviser. The adviser, allegedly a shaman<\/a>, is herself the daughter of another Rasputin-type religious figure who had also secretly advised<\/a> the president\u2019s father during his 18 years in office. <\/p>\n

Another example can be found in Nicaragua. President Daniel Ortega \u2013 who packed his Supreme Court to allow him a third consecutive term \u2013 has as his vice president his wife, Rosario Murillo. She is one of the few leaders he trusts, having alienated much of his party.<\/a> <\/p>\n

American precedents<\/h2>\n

For its part, the U.S. has had sultanistic tendencies of its own in the past. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.<\/span>
\n National Archives<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President John F. Kennedy\u2019s closest adviser and his attorney general was his younger brother, Robert, indispensable during the perilous time of the Cuba Missile Crisis. And JFK, while in office and sometimes with his brother Robert involved, took enormous risks in having flings with women with dubious political connections – from a socialite with links to the mob<\/a> to a possible East German spy<\/a>. This is not mere indiscretion.<\/p>\n

The reaction of Congress to all this was to pass, in 1967, the Anti-Nepotism Statute<\/a> \u2013 nicknamed the \u201cBobby Kennedy Law\u201d<\/a> \u2013 to make sure close relatives no longer assume official positions. Some suggest<\/a>, however, that the law does not exclude unofficial advisers.<\/p>\n

Another example of sultanistic practices is Hillary Clinton, who was her president-husband\u2019s lead and unpaid adviser on health care reform. <\/p>\n

And then, in George W. Bush\u2019s Cabinet, the two most powerful foreign policy advisers \u2013 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney \u2013 were both alumni of George H. W. Bush\u2019s administration. After the terrorist attacks of 9\/11, Rumsfeld and Cheney, with Bush\u2019s approval, established arbitrary policy<\/a> that permitted torture<\/a>, warrantless surveillance and targeted assassinations. <\/p>\n

These Bush-era \u201claw-free\u201d zones in national security matters, which some have called dictatorial<\/a>, were based on the legal concept of the \u201cunitary executive.\u201d The idea is that the judicial and legislative branches cannot check or regulate the president on \u201cexecutive\u201d matters, especially those involving national security.<\/p>\n

The unitary executive<\/a> facilitated sultanism by asserting that the president monopolizes all executive power, however exercised. As some noted constitutional scholars<\/a> have said, this theory basically places the president above the law. <\/p>\n

What makes Trump different<\/h2>\n

Most modern American presidents have risen through the institutions of U.S. democracy \u2013 state political parties, Capitol Hill, the military. They have been vetted and embedded in institutional rules, attitudes and relationships. Someone like Trump, coming in \u201cfrom the cold,\u201d in contrast, brings his family and close associates and makes decisions outside of those formal and informal institutions. <\/p>\n

Having masterminded his unexpected victory based on an unconventional campaign, Trump has already shown a tendency to trust his instincts on major decisions of governance, creating impulsive, unpredictable decisions. His past record as CEO and his outsider status make Trump self-reliant and assured that most of the world is misguided and only he and his few trusted advisers, including his family, have the answers. <\/p>\n

When questioned, for example, on his pledge<\/a> to ban Muslims from entering the country \u201cuntil our country\u2019s representatives can figure out what is going on,\u201d Trump said: <\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m doing is no different than FDR. If you look at what he was doing, it was far worse \u2026 and he\u2019s one of the most highly respected presidents \u2014 they name highways after him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here Trump was evoking the 1944 Korematsu decision<\/a>, which upheld almost unlimited executive powers over immigration to permit the detention of Japanese-Americans without any evidence (and none existed) of subversion. This decision is considered by many constitutional scholars<\/a> as the most ignominious in Supreme Court history, a \u201ctragic mistake that we should not repeat.\u201d Even the late Justice Antonin Scalia disavowed it as an \u201cerror.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

The U.S. presidency has always been prone to sultantistic tendencies, but under a Trump presidency what were once isolated incidents have predictably become a way of governing. When the closest advisers, both institutional (like Ivanka and Kushner<\/a>) and informal (in the case of his two adult sons), are dominated by family members, the decision-making process will not only be erratic and possibly influenced by private family interests but also tend to ignore legal procedures that have also met the test of time. <\/p>\n

Instead of a \u201cteam of rivals\u201d<\/a> under the rule of law, the Trump presidency may be akin to medieval monarchy, with decisions made by court politics, not legal procedures.<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This piece updates Sultan Donald Trump?<\/a>, which originally ran on Jan. 20, 2017.<\/em><\/p>\n

Henry F. (Chip) Carey<\/a>, Associate Professor, Political Science , Georgia State University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry F. (Chip) Carey, Georgia State University Much attention has been focused recently on President Trump\u2019s \u201cnew\u201d foreign policy. This policy change is symbolized by the U.S. missile attack on Syria’sShayrat airfield, which followed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s alleged chemical weapon attack on rebels in that country\u2019s Idlib province. The National Security Council has also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":8953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[986,479,477,2155,2154],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8952,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8951\/revisions\/8952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}