Fourth branch of government

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In the American political system, the fourth branch of government refers to a group that influences the three branches of governance defined in the American Constitution (legislative, judicial, and executive). Such groups can include the press (an analogy to the French Fourth Estate), the people, interest groups. U.S. independent administrative government agencies, while technically part of the executive branch (or, in a few cases, the legislative branch) of government, are sometimes referred to as being part of the fourth branch.

In some cases the term is perjorative because such a fourth branch has no official status (except when referring to government agencies). The term is also widely used as a picturesque phrase without derogatory intent. Where the use is intended to be perjorative, it can be a rhetorical shorthand to illustrate the user's belief in the illegitimacy of certain types of governmental authority with a concomitant skepticism towards whence such authority originates.

1 The press
2 The people
3 Interest groups
4 Administrative agencies
5 Other "fourth branches"
6 References

[edit] The press

The concept of the media or press as a fourth branch stems from a belief that the news media's responsibility to inform the populace is essential to the healthy functioning of the democracy.^[1] The phrase "Fourth Estate" may be used to emphasise the independence of the press particularly when this is contrasted with the press as a "fourth branch".^[2]

[edit] The people

Identifying the people as a fourth branch of government may be an attempt to imply that the principle of "government by the people" has been broken.^[3] In most modern democratic states, however, it is not the populace, which makes up the primary source of power, but rather a political and economic elite, which generally excludes the lower socioeconomic classes from the political decision-making process and predominantly represents the interests of the middle and upper classes of society.^[4]

[edit] Interest groups

In an article entitled "The 'Fourth Branch' of Government", Alex Knott of the Center for Public Integrity asserted in 2005 that "special interests and the lobbyists they employ have reported spending, since 1998, a total of almost $13 billion to influence Congress, the White House and more than 200 federal agencies."^[5]

[edit] Administrative agencies

The administrative agencies that are funded from public money may exercise powers granted by the Congress. Without appropriate controls and oversight this practice may result in a bureaucracy (in the original literal sense). Some critics have argued that a central paradox at the heart of the American political system is democracy's reliance on the what the critics view as undemocratic bureaucratic institutions that characterize the administrative agencies of government.^[6] Although U.S. independent administrative agencies are not technically part of a "fourth branch" of government, the term is sometimes used to describe those agencies.