Unilateral Presidential Directives Research Articles

How Legislative (In)Activity, Ideological Divergence, and Divided Government Impact Executive Unilateralism: A Test of Three Theories

During the past two decades scholars from a variety of different fields (law, history, journalism, political science) have written extensively about the development and implementation of the Unilateral Presidency. Because several explanations for unilateral action have been posited, we provide a thorough test of three theories of executive unilateral action. Applying a newly-developed methodology to the most comprehensive dataset of unilateral presidential directives to date, results of the Bayesian Poisson Vector Autoregressive model suggest that although executive orders, memoranda, and proclamations are all strategic tools that presidents utilize to unilaterally alter policy, fundamental differences exist between them, as well as the inter-dependence among them. More important, our results show that whereas the percentage of bills passed is related to presidential proclamations, legislative activity actually depends on the number of executive orders issued. However, CQ success scores are related to both executive orders and presidential proclamations. We also find that presidential ideology and congressional ideology are related to executive action, whereas the impact of divided government is at best only weakly related.

Graham G. Dodds. Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. 309. $69.95.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewGraham G. Dodds. Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. 309. $69.95.Flagg TaylorFlagg TaylorSkidmore College Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Political Thought Volume 4, Number 3Summer 2015 Published in association with the American Political Thought organized section of the American Political Science Association and the Jack Miller Center Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/682035 Views: 39Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. By Graham G. Dodds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 320p. $69.95

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. By Graham G. Dodds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 320p. $69.95

Take Up Your Pen:Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics

Political Science QuarterlyVolume 129, Issue 3 p. 502-503 Book Review Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics by , Graham G. Dodds , Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 320 pp. $69.95. William P. Marshall, William P. Marshall University of North Carolina School of LawSearch for more papers by this author William P. Marshall, William P. Marshall University of North Carolina School of LawSearch for more papers by this author First published: 11 September 2014 https://doi.org/10.1002/polq.12237Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume129, Issue3Fall 2014Pages 502-503 RelatedInformation

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics

Take up your pen: unilateral presidential directives in American politics

Chapter 1. Unilateral Directives and the Presidency Chapter 2. The Constitutional Executive Chapter 3. Judicial Sanction Chapter 4. Early Unilateral Presidential Directives Chapter 5. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rise of Unilateral Presidential Directives Chapter 6. Unilateral Presidential Directives from Roosevelt to Roosevelt: Taft through Chapter 7. Unilateral Presidential Directives from the Postwar Era to the Present Day Chapter 8. Conclusions Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. By Graham G.Dodds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 309 pp.

Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. By Graham G. Dodds. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. 309 pp. Writing in the Notre Dame Lawyer in 1963, a young law student by the name of Robert B. Cash observed that history of executive orders is, to a great extent, a narrative of the evolution of presidential power. Graham G. Dodds' impressive book, Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics, shows how correct Cash was. Over the past two decades there has been no shortage of scholarly attention to unilateral presidential directives. During President George W. Bush's tenure, four fine books by political scientists were published: Kenneth Mayer's With the Stroke of Pen: Executive Orders and Presidential Power (Princeton University Press, 2001), Phillip Cooper's By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive Direct Action (University Press of Kansas, 2002), William Howell's Power without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential Action (Princeton University Press, 2003), and Adam Warber's Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency: Legislating from the Oval Office (Lynn Rienner, 2006). However, each of these books, in keeping with most presidency research, focuses on the post-Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) presidency. What sets Dodds' book apart is the careful attention he gives to the development of unilateral directives from the founding era through FDR. Of Dodds' six substantive chapters, only one is devoted to what most political scientists think of as the modern presidency: the post-WWII era to the present day. Of course, anyone with even a passing knowledge of American history has heard about the most famous nineteenth-century unilateral directives: Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Andrew Jackson's Nullification Proclamation, and George Washington's Neutrality Proclamation. But Dodds' in-depth history takes us far beyond these well-known episodes of unilateral presidential action. In Chapter 3 (Judicial Sanction), he recounts the many unsung nineteenth- and early-twentieth century cases in which courts placed their stamp of approval on unilateral presidential directives--and in which they sometimes placed limits on what a president could do via executive action. The many cases that Dodds recounts occasionally make for tedious reading, but they amply support Dodds' contention that the judicial sanction of unilateral presidential directives helped pave the way for presidents' more expansive use of executive orders in the early twentieth century. Chapter 4 (Early Unilateral Presidential Directives) provides a fascinating sojourn through nineteenth-century presidential history. Dodds shows that on a wide range of domestic policy issues, including Reconstruction, the management of public lands, the treatment of Native Americans and Mormons, and labor disputes and domestic unrest, nineteenth-century presidents--especially after the Civil War--frequently resorted to unilateral executive action. Dodds' account is particularly helpful in dispelling the notion that these presidents were mere clerks (p. 119). Many of the executive orders were, of course, mundane--more housekeeping than policy making. But a number of the confrontations over executive orders have a decidedly modern ring. Take, for instance, Grover Cleveland's end-of-term proclamation in 1897 that set aside 21 million acres for forest in six western states, a move so unpopular in the West that Congress affixed a rider to an essential government funding bill to undo the president's action. Forced to choose between funding the federal government or preserving his forest reserves (p. 100), Cleveland opted for a government shutdown and pocket-vetoed the bill. Among William McKinley's first acts as president was to call Congress into session to repeal Cleveland's forest reserves. Not that McKinley objected to rule by executive action: in fact, by Dodds' count, McKinley issued executive orders more frequently than any of his predecessors, including Cleveland (p. …

Graham G. Dodds: Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. 309.)

Graham G. Dodds: Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013. Pp. 309.)

The Hope for Audacity: The Understated Unilateralism of President Obama

AbstractThis article offers an overall assessment of President Barack Obama’s use of unilateral presidential directives and situates his usage in a broader historical context. It draws on academic scholarship and history to better understand the extent to which Obama’s use of unilateral presidential directives (such as executive orders, proclamations, and memoranda) comports with or departs from that of other presidents. It examines five perspectives on Obama’s use of unilateral presidential directives (namely, a quantitative overview of his executive orders and proclamations, a qualitative review of some of his more noteworthy directives, and a survey of what the president, his conservative critics, and liberals have had to say about his directives). The evidence indicates that Obama has been fairly reserved or reticent in his use of unilateral directives. Four possible explanations for the nature of his (dis)use of unilateral directives (namely, reservations of a political, constitutional, or psychological nature, as well as the use of alternatives to unilateral presidential directives are considered).

Reexamining the Use of Unilateral Orders

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.

By Order of George W. Bush: The Unilateral Directives of a Unilateralist President

This article examines George W. Bush’s unilateral presidential directives, including executive orders, proclamations, and executive memoranda. It seeks to ascertain whether his use of such directives was as radical as his critics claimed and whether it was in keeping with that of previous presidents or departed from established practices. I divide Bush’s more noteworthy directives into three categories (regular, rare, and remarkable), and I consider several directives within each category. I find that while some of Bush’s unilateral directives were radically new and controversial both politically and constitutionally, many of his directives were based on earlier presidents’ precedents.