Fine, "The Politics of Justice," ABA Journal, Vol. 59 (Dec. 1973). Office of the Attorney General, Departmental Records of Outside Contacts, Order No. 532-73 (August 8, 1973). "The Complete Collection of Political Documents Ripped-Off From the FBI Office in Media, Pa., March 8, 1971," WIN, March 1972. Robert H. Jackson, "The Federal Prosecutor," speech at U.S Attorneys conference April, 1940. WATERGATE IN RETROSPECT: THE FORGOTTEN AGENDA A Report prepared by Members of the Research October 1975 65-728 76 25 ABSTRACT [1]. Government reforms are required to restrain the abuse of executive power; despite Watergate, the need for such reforms has gone unmet. [2]. Proposals for new and detailed restrictions on Presidential action are likely to be ineffective. Congress should make better use of its existing power and increase, not its personal staff, but its institutional capabilities for extracting more reliable information from the Executive. [3]. New reforms are required to bring more law and order into government itself. An interrelated package of remedies should depoliticize the Department of Justice, create permanent special prosecuting facilities for cases of criminal misconduct by government officials, and provide a clear point of access for non-criminal charges of administrative misconduct. [4]. Policing the civil service laws should be part of this reformed system of law enforcement, not part of the personnel management function of the Civil Service Commission. [5].These reforms will improve early warning signals to prevent particular abuses of executive power from escalating into major constitutional and political crises that jeopardize the credibility of government in the eyes of the people. In March 1974 a Panel appointed by the National Academy of Public Administration responded to a request from the Ervin Committee (Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities) with a report entitled "Watergate: Its Implications for Responsible Government. This Report was an important contribution to the wide-ranging debate on government power and its abuse that surrounded the last months of the Nixon Administration. From September 1974 to June 1975, the Committee on Research in Public Administration devoted its monthly meetings to a consideration of the NAPA Report.* Less pressed by the events and controversies of early 1974, it should now be possible to address the implications of Watergate in a broader perspective than that available before the Nixon resignation and Ford succession. The following comments are not offered as ready-made solutions to the immensely difficult problems of government power; dilemmas rather than solutions are part of the Founding Fathers' deliberate design in sharing powers among divided institutions. Our recommendations do, however, express a conviction that our institutional arrangements can be improved and that the need to do so is as urgent as it ever was. *Information on the Research Committee and its work is provided in an appendix to this report. -2 1. The American System of Government. With the one exception of campaign financing, no major reforms have been enacted as a direct response to Watergate revelations.* Despite the many proposals for change advocated by the National Academy Panel and other groups, events of 1974 do not appear to have created the kind of momentum for directly-related reforms in the Federal Government that have frequently followed other scandals. This does not mean that changes have failed to occur. The marked shift in government climate toward a greater sense of openness, stability, and integrity is a powerful sign of the extent to which the personal characteristics of a President exert a pervasive influence on government operations. At the same time, these characteristics and a general preoccupation with economic and energy problems have tended to promote complacency about any institutional changes that might be needed. Rather than providing the reform opportunity that most observers predicted, Watergate's legacy appears to have been a yearning to return to normalcy and the conduct of business as usual in the Federal Government. In a sense, developments since the Panel's Report in the spring of 1974 do appear to justify a feeling of satisfaction with the basic features of American government. Congressional use of the impeachment process, the Supreme Court's adjudication "However, certain measures not directly related to Watergate, such as the Privacy Act of 1974 and Congressional Budget Reform Act, probably could not have been enacted without the Watergate climate. A proposal to establish a Permanent Commission on Constitutional Reviev, endorsed by the American Society for Public Administration is still pending. |