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Taking Matters into Their Own Hands: Presidents' Personality Traits and the Use of Executive Orders
Author(s) -
Gallagher Maryann E.,
Blackstone Bethany
Publication year - 2015
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/psq.12185
Subject(s) - presidential system , presidency , executive power , personality psychology , personality , power (physics) , political science , big five personality traits , psychology , focus (optics) , executive order , social psychology , public relations , public administration , politics , law , physics , optics , quantum mechanics
Existing studies of executive orders tend to focus on two issues: how the frequency of executive orders has changed over time and whether the nature of presidential power has changed such that we should reconsider Neustadt's thesis that bargaining is the essence of presidential power. Although institutionalists bemoan the literature's focus on the “personal presidency,” no study of unilateral uses of power has taken into account the systematic influence of presidents' personalities. Instead, studies that consider why some presidents issue more executive orders than others focus on contextual factors, not attributes of the presidents. In this article we address this gap in the literature by examining whether presidents' personality traits significantly influence their propensity to issue executive orders. The results of our analysis demonstrate that both personality and institutional factors play a significant role in presidents' decisions to act unilaterally.