THE FEDERALIST AUTHORS AND THE PROBLEM OF EQUALITY BETWEEN THE BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT - A STUDY IN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

An important concern addressed in the Federalist Papers was how there could be a system of three coequal branches of government when the leg islature had the power to appropriate funds needed by the other two br anches. This study compares treatment by the Appropriations committees of funds for the Supreme Court before and after recent controversial decisions; it also compares the treatment by these committees of fundi ng necessary to run the presidency during periods of relative calm wit h periods of turbulence during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The author finds that except for the case of the Nixon administration during the Watergate crisis, the Appropriation committees did not redu ce, or threaten to reduce, requests for funding of the coequal branche s more during periods of controversy than other times. In effect, the authors of the Federalist need not have worried.