The Contemporary Presidency: Executive Orders and Presidential Unilateralism

Abstract

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.

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