Recent debate on the use of unilateral presidential directives suggests that a president’s ability to shape and act without the consent of Congress is largely unchecked by traditional institutional arrangements while other research shows that presidents are more likely to be restrained by Congress. This article contributes to this debate by examining the source of authority used in unilateral orders. Using a new database of unilateral orders and a new theory, we reexamine when presidents use unilateral orders. We find that orders that invoke Congressionally based sources of authority are used when Congress is stronger while those that are presidency-based are used when Congress is weaker. These findings allow us to be more precise about how presidential unilateral strategy is shaped by institutional forces.
ArnhartL. (1979). The “God-Like Prince”: John Locke, executive prerogative, and the American presidency. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 9, 121-130.
2.
BaileyJ. D. (2004). Executive prerogative and the “Good Officer” in the letter to John B. Colvin. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 34, 732-754.
3.
BaileyJ. D.RottinghausB. J. (2013). The development of unilateral power and the problem of the power to warn: Washington through McKinley. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 43, 186-204.
4.
BennettD.YannarellaP. (1986). Locating presidential proclamations and executive orders—A guide to sources. Legal References Services Quarterly, 5, 177-185.
5.
BrandtP. T.WilliamsJ. T. (2001). A linear Poisson autoregressive model: The Poisson ar(p). Political Analysis, 9, 164-184.
6.
CameronA. C.TrivediP. K. (1998). Regression analysis of count data. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Canes-WroneB.HowellW. G.LewisD. E. (2008). Toward a broader understanding of presidential power: A reevaluation of the two presidencies thesis. Journal of Politics, 70, 1-16.
8.
CooperJ.BradyD. V.HurleyP. A. (1977). The electoral basis of party voting: Patterns and trends in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1887–1969. In MaiselL.CooperJ. (Eds.), The impact of the electoral process (pp. 133-65). Beverly Hills, CA: SAGE.
9.
CooperP. J. (1986). By order of the president: Administration by executive order and proclamation. Administration and Society, 18, 233-262.
10.
DeeringC. J.MaltzmanF. (1999). The politics of executive orders: Legislative constraints on presidential power. Political Research Quarterly, 52, 767-783.
11.
DoddsG. G. (2013). Take up your pen: Unilateral presidential directives in American politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
12.
FatovicC. (2004). Constitutionalism and presidential prerogative: Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian perspectives. American Journal of Political Science, 48, 429-444.
13.
FineJ. A.WarberA. L. (2012). Circumventing adversity: Executive orders and divided government. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 42, 256-274.
14.
FisherL. (2003). Nazi saboteurs on trial: A military tribunal and American law. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.
15.
GoldsmithJ. (2007). The terror presidency: Law and judgment inside the Bush administration. New York, NY: Norton.
16.
GomezB.ShullS. A. (1995). Presidential decision making: Explaining the use of executive orders. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association. Tampa: Florida.
17.
GrantJ. T.KellyN. J. (2008). Legislative productivity of the U.S. Congress, 1789–2004. Political Analysis, 16, 303-323.
18.
HarveyA. C.FernandesC. (1989). Time series models for count or qualitative observations. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 7, 407-417.
19.
HowellW. G. (2003). Power without persuasion: The politics of direct presidential action. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
20.
HowellW. G. (2005). Unilateral powers: A brief overview. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 35, 417-439.
21.
HowellW. G.KrinerD. (2008). Power without persuasion: Identifying executive influence. In RockmanB. A.WatermanR. W. (Eds.), Presidential leadership: The vortex of power (pp. 105-144). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
22.
HowellW. G.JackmanS. P.RogowskiJ. (2013). The wartime president: Executive influence and the nationalizing politics of threat. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
23.
IssacharoffS.PildesR. H. (2005). Between civil libertarianism and executive unilateralism: An institutional process approach to rights during wartime. In TushnetM. (Ed.), The constitution in wartime (pp. 161-197). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
24.
KingG.RagsdaleL. (1988). The elusive executive: Discovering statistical patterns in the presidency. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
25.
KleinermanB. A. (2005). Lincoln’s example: Executive power and the survival of constitutionalism. Perspectives on Politics. 3, 801-816.
26.
KrauseG. A.CohenD. B. (1997). Presidential use of executive orders, 1953-1994. American Politics Research, 25, 458-481.
27.
KrauseG. A.CohenJ. E. (2000). Opportunity, constraints, and the development of the institutional presidency: The issuance of executive orders, 1939-96. Journal of Politics, 62, 88-114.
28.
KrutzG. S.PeakeJ. S. (2009). Treaty politics and the rise of executive agreements: International commitments in a system of shared powers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
29.
LangstonT. S.LindM. E. (1991). John Locke & the limits of presidential prerogative. Polity, 24, 49-68.
30.
LongJ. S.FreeseJ. (2006). Regression models for categorical dependent variables using STATA. College Station, TX: STATA Press.
31.
MansfieldH. C.Jr. (1989). Taming the prince: The ambivalence of modern executive power. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
32.
MarshallB. W.PacelleR. L.Jr. (2005). Revisiting the two presidencies: The strategic use of executive orders. American Politics Research, 33, 81-105.
33.
MartinL. (1999). The President and International Commitments: Treaties as Signaling Devices. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 35, 440-465.
34.
MayerK. R. (1999). Executive orders and presidential power. Journal of Politics, 61, 445-466.
35.
MayerK. R. (2001). With the stroke of a pen: Executive orders and presidential power. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
36.
MayerK. R. (2009a). Going alone: The presidential power of unilateral action. In EdwardsG. C.HowellW. G. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the American presidency (pp. 427-454). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
37.
MayerK. R. (2009b). Executive orders. In BessetteJ. M.TulisJ. K. (Eds.) The constitutional presidency. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins.
MilkisS. M. (1993). The president and the parties: The transformation of the American party system since the New Deal. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
40.
MoeT. M.HowellW. G. (1999a). The presidential power of unilateral action. Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 15, 132-179.
41.
MorganR. P. (1970). The President and civil rights: Policy making by executive order. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.
42.
NathanR. P. (1983). The administrative presidency (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.
43.
NeighborsW. D. (1964). Presidential legislation by executive order. University of Colorado Law Review, 37, 105-118.
44.
NeustadtR. E. (1990). Presidential power and the modern presidents: The politics of leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. New York, NY: Free Press. (Original work published 1960)
45.
PetersonM. A. (1990). Legislating together. The White House and Capitol Hill from Eisenhower to Reagan. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.
46.
PiousR. M. (2012). The historical presidency: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the destroyer deal: Normalizing prerogative power. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 42, 190-204.
47.
PooleK. T. (1998). Estimating a basic space from a set of issue scales. American Journal of Political Science, 42, 954-993.
48.
RudalevigeA. (2009). The administrative presidency and bureaucratic control: Implementing a research agenda. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 39, 10-24.
49.
SalaB. R. (1998). In search of the administrative president: Presidential “decree” powers and policy implementation in the United States. In CareyJ. M.ShugartM. S. (Eds.), Executive decree authority (pp. 254-273). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
50.
SchlesingerA. M. (1973). The imperial presidency. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
51.
SchmittG. J. (1987). Jefferson and executive power: Revisionism and the “Revolution of 1800.”Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 17(2), 7-25.
52.
ShullS. A. (1997). Presidential-Congressional relations. Policy and time approaches. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
53.
SollenbergerM. A.RozellM. J. (2012). The president’s czars: Undermining Congress and the Constitution. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
54.
ThomasG. (2000). As far as republican principles will admit: Presidential prerogative and constitutional government. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 30, 34-52.
55.
VladeckS. I. (2004). Emergency power and the militia acts. Yale Law Journal, 114, 149-194.
56.
WarberA. (2006). Executive orders and the modern presidency: Legislating from the Oval Office. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
57.
WatermanR. W. (2009). Assessing the unilateral presidency. In EdwardsG. C.HowellW. G. (Eds.). Oxford handbook and the American presidency. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
58.
WildavskyA. (1966). The two presidencies. Trans-Action, 4, 7-14.
59.
WilmerdingL. (1952). The president and the law. Political Science Quarterly, 67, 321-338.
60.
YoungL. (2013). Unilateral presidential policy making and the impact of crises. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 43, 328-352.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
