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The Contemporary Presidency : Executive Orders and Presidential Unilateralism
Author(s) -
RUDALEVIGE ANDREW
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.03945.x
Subject(s) - presidential system , presidency , executive power , executive branch , political science , representation (politics) , ratification , executive order , power (physics) , legislature , persuasion , law and economics , law , sociology , psychology , politics , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
How should we assess unilateral tactics and their contribution to presidential power in a less‐than‐unitary executive branch? To explore this question this article examines the provenance of nearly 300 executive orders from 1947 through 1987. Archival data show that executive orders are frequently a less‐than‐perfect representation of presidential preferences, despite the assumptions of recent work on unilateral power. That is, the issuance of executive orders often involves persuasion rather than simply command: it incorporates wide consultation across the executive branch and, frequently, White House ratification of what agencies wanted to do in the first place.