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{{Short description|U.S. political term for highly influential institutions aside from the three gov. branches}}
In [[politics of the United States]], '''"fourth branch of government"''' is an unofficial term referring to groups or institutions perceived variously as influencing or acting in the stead of the three branches of the [[Federal government of the United States|US federal government]] defined in the [[Constitution of the United States]] ([[legislative branch of the United States federal government|legislative]], [[executive branch of the United States|executive]] and [[judicial branch of the United States|judicial]]).<ref>{{cite news |last1=Turley |first1=Jonathan |title=The rise of the fourth branch of government |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-rise-of-the-fourth-branch-of-government/2013/05/24/c7faaad0-c2ed-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html |access-date=28 March 2024 |newspaper=Washington Post |publisher=The Washington Post Co. |date=24 May 2013}}</ref> Views as to whether the influence is due or undue or the actions are for good or ill also vary.

Such groups can include the [[News media in the United States|press]] (akin to the European '[[Fourth Estate]]'), [[Public opinion|the people]] (in sum or as [[Grand jury|grand juries]]), and [[interest group]]s. The [[independent agencies of the United States government|independent administrative agencies of the United States government]], while technically part of any one of the three branches, may also be referred to as a ‘fourth branch’.

== The press ==
While the term ‘[[fourth estate]]’ is used to emphasize the independence of '[[News media|the press]]', the ''fourth branch'' suggests that the press is not independent of the government.<ref>Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon. ''Unreliable Sources'' (New York, NY: Lyle Stuart, 1990) {{ISBN|0-8184-0521-X}}</ref> The concept of the news media or press as a fourth branch stems from a belief that the media's responsibility to inform the populace is essential to the healthy functioning of democracy.<ref>{{cite web |author=Peter Gelderloos |title=The Fourth Branch of Government: Corporate Media Complicity from Miami to Iraq |url=http://eatthestate.org/08-08/FourthBranchGovernment.htm |date=2004-02-16 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20040216152347/http://eatthestate.org/08-08/FourthBranchGovernment.htm |archivedate=2004-02-16 |access-date=2006-11-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Douglass Cater]], in his  1959 "The Fourth Branch of Government" offered the hypothesis that the press had become "a ''de facto'', quasiofficial ''fourth branch of government''" and observed it was the looseness of the American political framework that allowed news media to “insert themselves as another branch of the government”.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cater |first=Douglass |date=1959  |title=The Fourth Branch of Government  |url=https://archive.org/details/fourthbranchofgo0000cate |url-access=registration |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Sparrow |first=Bartholomew H. |date=1999 |title=Uncertain Guardians: The News Media as a Political Institution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TGuMlw1rS8C&q=%221959+study%22&pg=PA6 |publisher=JHU Press |page=6 |isbn=9780801860362 }}</ref> Cater was "convinced that, insofar as the press did act as a true political player (rather than an unbiased observer of politics), it corrupted itself and went astray from its primary responsibility—to convey important information and to act as a nonpartisan watchdog for the public against all trespassers on their rights."<ref name="teachinghistory">{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |title=The 4th Estate as the 4th Branch |url=https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/23821 |access-date=December 13, 2018 |website=[[teachinghistory.org]] |publisher=National History Education Clearinghouse}}</ref>{{efn|For more on Douglass Cater, including recognition of his ‘evenhandedness’, see his [https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/16/obituaries/douglass-cater-is-dead-at-72-educator-and-presidential-aide.html obituary].<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Douglass Cater Is Dead at 72; Educator and Presidential Aide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/16/obituaries/douglass-cater-is-dead-at-72-educator-and-presidential-aide.html |work=New York Times |date=September 16, 1995 |access-date=December 14, 2018 }}</ref>}}{{efn|[[Herbert Brucker|Herbert Brücker]], in his 1949 book, ''Freedom of Information'' on "the practical relationship between the government and the press" equated the terms '4th estate' and '4th branch of government',<ref>{{cite book |last=Brücker |first=Herbert  |date=1949 |title=Freedom of Information |publisher=Macmillan Company }}</ref> but held the same position as Cater regarding corruption of the press when it acted as a political player.<ref name=teachinghistory/>}}

In 1985, [[Walter Annenberg]] noted that several commentators were applying the term 'fourth branch of government' to the press to indicate that it has at least as much if not more power to direct public policy than do the other three branches, in part because of its direct contact with the public and its protection "by the First Amendment from responsibility for what they report".<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Fourth Branch of Government |last=Annenberg |first=Walter H.|editor1-last=Hiebert |editor1-first=R.E. |editor2-last=Reuss |editor2-first=C. |date=1985 |title=Impact of mass media: current issues |publisher=Longman Publishing Group }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Oswald |first1=Kristine A. |date=1993 |title=Mass media and the transformation of American politics |url=https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C10&q=%22Mass+Media+and+the+Transformation+of+American+Politics%22&btnG=&httpsredir=1&article=1615&context=mulr |journal=Marq. L. Rev. |volume=77 |issue=2 |pages=385–414 |access-date=December 13, 2018 }}</ref>

== The people ==
[[Antonin Scalia|Justice Antonin Scalia]]'s majority opinion in ''United States v. Williams'', 1992 has been relied on to refer to [[Grand jury|grand juries]] as a fourth branch of government. In that opinion, Scalia wrote:
<blockquote>[T]he grand jury is mentioned in the Bill of Rights, but not in the body of the Constitution. It has not been textually assigned, therefore, to any of the branches described in the first three Articles. It 'is a constitutional fixture in its own right' [case cites]. In fact the whole theory of its function is that it belongs to no branch of the institutional government, serving as a kind of buffer or referee between the Government and the people.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=[[United States v. Williams (1992)|United States v. Williams]] |vol=504 |opinion=36 |pinpoint= |court=US Supreme Court |date=1992 |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/90-1972.ZO.html |accessdate= December 13, 2018}}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=May 2024}}</blockquote>

Some have used this to call for [[common law]] grand juries "to expose fraud and corruption whether it is in the judicial or political realm."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Norris |first=Justin |date=September 24, 2013 |title=Blog: Organizers 'Reinstate' Common Law Grand Juries in Pennsylvania |url=http://sites.law.duq.edu/juris/2013/09/24/organizers-reinstate-common-law-grand-juries-in-pennsylvania |access-date=December 13, 2018 |magazine=[[Juris Magazine]] |location=Duquesne University Law School}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2024}}

Others have used the term in calls to, e.g, "empower the people" by [[Petition#Modern use|petition]] or [[referendum]] processes<ref name="teachinghistory" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Edsall |first=Tom |date=September 13, 1996 |title=Conservative Allies Plot Separate Routes |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/09/13/conservative-allies-plot-separate-routes/46af7e39-10d2-4307-ae8b-04d1ab314953/?noredirect=on |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> or, similarly, for "broader and more direct participation in our governance" by eliminating the [[United States Electoral College|Electoral College]], implementing [[Electronic voting|e-voting]] and other measures.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trammell |first1=Jack |url=https://archive.org/details/fourthbranchofgo0000tram/page/n7/mode/1up |title=The Fourth Branch of Government: We the People |last2=Terrell |first2=Guy |date=2016 |publisher=[[Brandylane Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-939930-74-3 }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable ([[WP:NOTRS]]).|date=May 2024}}

== Interest groups ==
In an article titled "The 'Fourth Branch' of Government", Alex Knott of the [[Center for Public Integrity]] asserted in 2005 that "[[interest group|special interests]] and the [[lobbyist]]s they employ have reported spending, since 1998, a total of almost $13 billion to influence [[United States Congress|Congress]], the [[White House]] and more than 200 [[List of federal agencies in the United States|federal agencies]]."<ref>{{cite news | first=Alex | last=Knott | title=Industry of Influence Nets More than $10 billion | work=The Center for Public Integrity | date=May 19, 2014 | url=https://publicintegrity.org/federal-politics/lobby-watch/industry-of-influence-nets-more-than-10-billiondxds | access-date=December 9, 2018 | archive-date=August 26, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200826183448/https://publicintegrity.org/politics/lobby-watch/industry-of-influence-nets-more-than-10-billiondxds | url-status=dead }}</ref>{{Secondary source needed|date=May 2024}}

== Administrative agencies ==
The [[Government agency|administrative agencies]] that are funded from public money may exercise powers granted by 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 what the critics view as undemocratic bureaucratic institutions that characterize the administrative agencies of government.<ref>Kevin B. Smith and Michael J. Licari, ''Public Administrations: Power and Politics in the Fourth Branch of Government'' ([[Oxford University Press]], February 2006) {{ISBN|1-933220-04-X}}</ref>

An argument made for calling administrative agencies a "fourth branch" of government is the fact that such agencies typically exercise all three constitutionally divided powers within a single bureaucratic body: That is, agencies legislate (a power vested solely in the legislature by the Constitution)<ref>''See generally'' United States Constitution, Article I</ref>{{Original research inline|date=May 2024}} through delegated rulemaking authority; investigate, execute, and enforce such rules (via the executive power these agencies are typically organized under); and apply, interpret, and enforce compliance with such rules (a power separately vested in the judicial branch).<ref>''See generally'' United States Constitution, Article III</ref>{{Original research inline|date=May 2024}} Additionally, non-executive, or [[Independent agencies of the United States government|"independent" administrative agencies]] are often called a fourth branch of government, as they create rules with the effect of law, yet may be composed at least partially of private, non-governmental actors.{{Original research inline|date=May 2024}}

The intelligence agencies have also been referred to as the fourth branch of government by people such as House of Representatives member [[Ron Dellums]], [[Lloyd Gardner]] and [[Tom Engelhardt]].<ref>{{cite book |title=U.S. Intelligence Agencies and Activities Hearings Before the Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, First Session |date=1975 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=2091}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Engelhardt |first1=Tom |title=The Fourth Branch: the rise of the national security state |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opensecurity/fourth-branch-rise-of-national-security-state/ |work=[[Open Democracy]] |date=4 August 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gardner |first1=Lloyd C. |title=The War on Leakers: National Security and American Democracy, from Eugene V. Debs to Edward Snowden |date=2016 |publisher=New Press |page=49}}</ref>

==Closely related concepts==
[[Bob Jessop]], in his book, 'The State: Past, Present, Future’<ref name=Jessop>{{cite book| last=Jessop|first=Bob|title=The State: Past, Present, Future|page=224|date=December 2015|publisher=John Wiley & Sons}}</ref> notes the similarity of three constructs:
#’''[[Deep state in the United States|Deep state]]''’ — for which he cites Mike Lofgren’s 2014 definition: "a hybrid association of elements of government and parts of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern … without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process …”.<ref name="Lofgren_2/21/2014">{{cite web | last=Lofgren | first=Mike | title=Essay: Anatomy of the Deep State | website=[[BillMoyers.com]] | date=February 21, 2014 | url=https://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/ | access-date=October 18, 2018}}</ref>
#’''Dark state''’ — “networks of officials, private firms, media outlets, think tanks, foundations, NGOs, interest groups, and other forces that attend to the needs of capital, not of everyday life” while “concealed from public gaze (or ‘hidden in plain sight’)", citing Jason Lindsay (2013).<ref>[The Concealment of the State] Jason Royce Lindsey, 2013 pages 35–36</ref>
#’''The Fourth Branch''’ of US government — consisting of “an ever more unchecked and unaccountable centre …, working behind a veil of secrecy”, citing [[Tom Engelhardt]] (2014).<ref name=Engelhardt>{{cite book | first= Tom | last=Engelhardt | title = Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single Superpower World | date=2014 | publisher= Haymarket Books | location=Chicago | isbn=9781608464272}}</ref>

Per Engelhardt: “Classically, … the three branches of government … were to check and balance one another so that power would never become centralized …. The founding fathers [never envisioned] that a ''fourth branch of government'', the [[National Security#National security state|national security state]], would arise, dedicated to the centralization of power in an atmosphere of total secrecy. In the post-9/11 years, it has significantly absorbed the other three branches.”<ref name=Engelhardt/>

==In popular culture==
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "[[Sideshow Bob Roberts]]" (originally aired October 9, 1994), [[Springfield (The Simpsons)|Springfield's]] leading [[conservative talk radio]] host, Birch Barlow (a parody of leading American conservative talk radio host [[Rush Limbaugh]]) welcomes listeners to his show by introducing himself as the "fourth branch of government" and the "[[51st state]]."{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
* In 2007, the short-lived ABC drama-thriller ''[[Traveler (2007 TV series)|Traveler]]'', the fourth branch existed as a secret society created by the [[Founding Fathers]] and composed of the oldest families in the [[United States]], whose purpose is to implement checks and balances on the [[U.S. government]] to guide the true course of America.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}
* Rapper and political activist [[Immortal Technique]] has a track entitled the "4th branch," in which he applies the role of said branch to the media in a pejorative manner. He implies in this track (or pretty much explicitly states) that corporately owned mass-media outlets of the United States act more like another part of the government instead of as independent entities, and he gives some of his reasons for this belief on the track.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==See also==
*[[Deep state in the United States|Deep state]]
*[[Fourth estate]]
*[[National security|National security state]]
*[[Military industrial complex]]
*[[Recuperation (politics)]]
*[[Shadow government (conspiracy)]]
*[[Government of the Republic of China]], which has five official branches

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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{{Separation of powers}}

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[[Category:Political mass media in the United States]]
[[Category:Separation of powers]]