The Birds and the Bees and the Black Boxes: Presidential Power and the Formulation of Executive Orders

Abstract

Where do executive orders come from? Using archival data drawn from the Kennedy and Reagan administrations, this pilot study of the provenance of executive orders paper breaks open the black box of orders’ issuance to argue that unilateral directives are frequently a less-than-perfect representation of presidential preferences, as much recent work on unilateral power assumes. That is, the issuance of executive orders often involves wide consultation across the executive branch and, frequently, White House ratification of what agencies wanted to do in the first place. This has important implications for how we assess unilateral tactics and their contribution to presidential power in a less-than-unitary executive branch.