pAmerica is highly polarized around elections but iunelectedi actors make many of the decisions that affect our lives. In this lucid history James R. Copland explains how unaccountable agents have taken over much of the U.S. government apparatus.brbrCongress has largely abdicated its authority. Independent administrative agencies churn out thousands of new regulations every year. Courts have enabled these irulemakersi to expand their powers beyond those authorized by lawand have constrained executive efforts to rein in the bureaucratic behemoth. brbrNo ordinary citizen can know what is legal and what is not. There are some 300000 federal crimes 98 percent of which were created by administrative action. The proliferation of rules gives enormous discretion to unelected ienforcersi and the severity of sanctions can be ruinous to citizens who unwittingly violate a regulation.brbrOutside the bureaucracy private attorneys regulate our conduct through lawsuits. Most of the legal theories underlying these suits were never voted upon by our elected representatives. A combination of historical accident decisions by judges and law professors and selfinterested advocacy by ilitigatorsi has built an onerous and expensive legal regime.brbrFinally state and local officials may be accountable to their own voters but some reach further afield pursuing agendas to dictate the terms of national commerce. These inew antifederalistsi are subjecting the citizens of Wyoming and Mississippi to the whims of the electorates of New York and San Franciscocontrary to the constitutional design. brbrIn these ways the unelected have assumed substantial control of the American republic upended the rule of law given the United States the worlds costliest legal system and inverted the Constitutions federalism. Copland caps off his account with ideas for charting a corrective course back to democratic accountability.p