The Once and Future King: The Rise and Fall of Crown Government is a book by Frank H. Buckley, discussed by Buckley and host Bob Zadek across multiple episodes of The Bob Zadek Show. The book’s central argument is that the American presidency has evolved from a limited executive role into a position with near-monarchical powers, and that this development reflects a structural failure of the constitutional design rather than a departure from it. Buckley, a law professor, first appeared on the show to discuss the book in October 2014, and the work is referenced in subsequent episodes as a foundational text in his broader critique of American governance.
The Framers’ design and its limits
Zadek opened the October 2014 episode by playing “Hail to the Chief” and asking whether the United States has a king or a president, framing the show around the question of whether the balance of power among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches has been distorted. He described the president as having “tipped the scales so that most of the power resides in the presidency,” and asked whether the Constitution got it wrong or whether the country went astray from the Framers’ intent Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Buckley responded by defending the Framers against the charge of error. He argued that to say 227 years later the system ended up in a place they would not have liked is merely to say they were not omniscient, and that the idea of designing a constitution that would work for 200 years is not something to criticize them for failing at. He described the Framers as “the most brilliant people,” possessing not just brilliance but a political sense and practical reason that a mere theoretician would lack, and said their debates are the most fascinating set of readings on the structure of liberty, surpassing even the Federalist Papers Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Zadek noted that James Madison, though not the secretary of the Constitutional Convention, reconstructed the debates each night from memory and notes, often verbatim, and kept the book secret for many years so the country would not be affected by the debates. These were released to the public much later in Madison’s life and became a crucial source document for understanding the debates Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Accountability and the culture of deference
Zadek contrasted the British and Canadian parliamentary systems with the American presidency, describing with envy how the prime minister enters the House of Commons and is confronted by yelling, angry commoners asking pointed questions, and comparing that with a presidential press conference where protocol and respect govern and questions are sometimes supplied in advance. He called for “Thomas Jefferson walking around the White House in his pajamas and slippers, opening the front door and letting in the visitors” Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Buckley agreed that the parliamentary system keeps leaders honest by forcing them to “take all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” He cited an incident in which the Daily Caller sent a reporter who was rude to Obama about immigration issues, and Obama became visibly angry; afterward, the White House press corps dumped on the reporter for his impertinence and want of deference to the head of state. Buckley observed that the Queen is not treated that way in Britain, and that prime ministers who must stand and take questions on every issue from an opposition bench tend to be better on their feet, wittier, and more in command of everything going on. In Canada, he noted, the prime minister must do it in two languages. All of this, he argued, tends to produce a different kind of leader than the “thin-skinned, imperious person who can rise to the top of American politics” Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
The impeachment clause and structural remedies
In the closing segment of the October 2014 episode, Zadek explained that the Constitution as ultimately drafted required a majority vote in the House for impeachment and a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict, but that earlier drafts had required only a majority for conviction. He said it was only when the Committee on Style was tidying up the draft that Gouverneur Morris changed it, and no one objected because people were too tired and hot and wanted to go home Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Buckley noted that the Framers had been there for four months and that the change came in the last two weeks, when so much was thrown in that they never got around to talking about it. Zadek speculated that if Morris had not made that change, Clinton might not have served out the balance of his term Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Asked what structural changes might improve the situation, Buckley said that many suggested constitutional amendments would probably never go anywhere, and that a detailed and specific amendment can be effectively overturned by the Supreme Court, making the power to nominate judges one of the president’s most important powers. His proposed change was to go back to the way it was intended to be: let Congress appoint the president and let Congress have the ability to remove the president by majority vote. Zadek observed that if that seems extreme, it is the way it is in a parliamentary system, and Buckley noted that when he mentions this, people say it sounds like a parliamentary system and Americans won’t like it, to which he responds that it was huge in Canada Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
Zadek concluded that the lesson from the book for him was a huge amount of curiosity about and respect for a parliamentary system, and that experience shows that system works better than the system into which the United States has morphed Has America Become an “Elective Monarchy”? (2014).
George Mason and the “elective monarchy”
In a December 2017 episode discussing Buckley’s The Republic of Virtue, Zadek returned to the themes of The Once and Future King. He compared the Framers to the scientists at Los Alamos building the atomic bomb, saying they sat with their calculations saying “this should work, but gulp, let’s see if it actually does,” and tested it without knowing what would happen. The Framers, he said, did the same thing with less immediate drama [[episodes/f_h__buckley_on__the_republic_of_virtue|F.H. Buckley on The Republic of Virtue (2017)]].
Zadek identified George Mason as perhaps the most prescient of the founding generation, noting that Mason helped participate in the writing of the Constitution but would not sign it. He read Mason’s 1787 statement: “We are not indeed constituting a British government, but a more dangerous monarchy, an elective one.” Zadek said Mason was prescient about Obama’s pen and phone, and noted that Buckley had observed on a previous appearance that America has built itself a more dangerous monarchy, an elective one, and that the American presidency has so much more power than any king in history ever fantasized about having [[episodes/f_h__buckley_on__the_republic_of_virtue|F.H. Buckley on The Republic of Virtue (2017)]].
Across episodes
The excerpts show the same question—whether the American presidency has become an elective monarchy—argued in the October 2014 episode and revisited in the December 2017 episode. The 2014 treatment focuses on the Framers’ design, the mechanics of impeachment, and Buckley’s proposed structural remedies; the 2017 treatment returns to the theme through George Mason’s 1787 warning and Buckley’s earlier observation about presidential power. The later episode does not revise the structural argument but places it in the context of Buckley’s subsequent book on corruption. A 2020 episode references Buckley’s The Once and Future King only in passing, listing it among his books, and a 2022 episode likewise lists it among his works without discussing its argument Did California Just Declare Itself a Nation-State? (2020) Progressive Conservatism with F.H. Buckley (2022).
What the sources do not cover
The excerpts do not state the full title of Buckley’s book beyond The Once and Future King: The Rise and Fall of Crown Government, nor do they give its publication date or publisher. They do not describe the specific contents of the book beyond the arguments Buckley and Zadek discuss on air, and they do not indicate whether Buckley’s proposed structural changes were developed at greater length in the book or only in conversation. The excerpts also do not cover any response to the book from other scholars or reviewers.