The End of Liberalism by Theodore Lowi was and is an important book, large in conception, bold in execution, and substantial in influence. It is a provocative and influential statement of some of the problems of pluralism, or “interest-group liberalism.” One of those problems is the inadequately constrained delegation of legislative problems to administrative agencies, leading to “the atrophy of institutions of popular control” (p. 86). The atrophy occurs because administrators exercise their discretion in ways set by agency-group relationships rather than by popular choice (p. 90). To solve this problem, Lowi calls for a return to “juridical democracy,” which means, in part, limiting federal action “to those practices for which it is possible to develop a clear and authoritative rule of law, enacted democratically and implemented absolutely” (p. 271). One way of achieving that limit is by asking the Supreme Court to declare “invalid and unconstitutional any delegation of power to an administrative agency that is not accompanied by clear standards of implementation” (p. 298).

Earlier this had been the view of Albert V. Dicey, the great British legal scholar. Dicey argued against the emerging administrative law on grounds that, by removing the defense of individual rights from the common courts, it would permit the growth of the welfare state. Lowi does not mention Dicey, and there is no indication that he is opposed to the substance of the welfare state.