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Re:Strengthening Congressional Independence from Corporate L... by _carl_jung on Friday September 27, 2019 @11:40AM (#21093138)
The UK has what are called "Non-ministerial government departments"[0]. These are government departments who aren't overseen directly by the government because they are deemed issues that live outside of the domain of the current governing party. This is in part to avoid the kind of "50% control" problems.

Does the US not have some kind of similar element?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-ministerial_government_dep...

Re:Strengthening Congressional Independence from Corporate L... by Majromax on Friday September 27, 2019 @12:11PM (#21093495)
> Does the US not have some kind of similar element?

Not on such a widespread basis, no (exceptions exist). For example, Wikipedia lists the Crown Prosecution Service as one such UK government department, but in the US the Attorney General directly governs the Department of Justice. This led to the then-chronic debate about just who had the authority to oversee/direct the Mueller investigation.

Even when an organization is set up outside the traditional Cabinet hierarchy, its leadership is still typically appointed by the President (often with Senate confirmation), such that a new administration should quickly expect to appoint a working majority of directors.

This can also directly cause problems of governance. The Federal Election Commission (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Election_Commission) is an independent agency that is responsible for administering elections law, but because of Presidental/Senate deadlock the board no longer has a quorum required to take official actions.

Re:Strengthening Congressional Independence from Corporate L... by Enginerrrd on Friday September 27, 2019 @02:05PM (#21094570)
Eh, Supreme Court justices, court of appeals judges, and district court judges are all lifetime appointees. Part of the theory for that is to decouple their decisions from a fear of political backlash like they might face if they had to get reelected.

Despite their many failings, I actually think this system works pretty well, and I'm always impressed at the reasoning behind supreme court rulings --even those I don't agree with.

Re:Strengthening Congressional Independence from Corporate L... by edraferi on Friday September 27, 2019 @11:52AM (#21093285)
Almost everything winds up as a department under the executive branch, headed by a political appointee. But exceptions exist, like the Post Office and TVA.