Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 2015
Department 1
History
Abstract
New Jersey’s chief executive enjoys more authority than any but a handful of governors in the United States. Historically speaking, however, New Jersey’s governors exercised less influence than met the eye. In the colonial period few proprietary or royal governors were able to make policy in the face of combative assemblies. The Revolutionary generation’s hostility to executive power contributed to a weak governor system that carried over into the 19th and 20th centuries, until the Constitution was thoroughly revised in 1947. Before that date a handful of governors, by dint of their ideas and personalities, affected the polity in meaningful ways. Derived from a lecture delivered at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute on March 11, 2014, this essay focuses on the long history of the executive office, assessing individual governors and delineating the qualities that made them noteworthy, for good or ill.
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.14713/njs.v1i1.10
Recommended Citation
Birkner, Michael J. "Governing New Jersey: Reflections on the Publication of a Revised and Expanded Edition of 'The Governors of New Jersey.'" New Jersey Studies 1.1 (Summer 2015), 1-17.
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher at: http://njs.libraries.rutgers.edu/index.php/njs/article/view/10
Comments
This article is written about the author's 2014 book, The Governors of New Jersey: Biographical Essays.