Presidential lawmaking by decree /
Scholars frequently analyze the president's influence in Congress. Apart from shaping the formal legislative process, chief executives possess a set of "legislative" tools, such as the ability to issue executive orders, proclamations, memoranda, executive agreements, and national sec...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
2002.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764778361&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | Scholars frequently analyze the president's influence in Congress. Apart from shaping the formal legislative process, chief executives possess a set of "legislative" tools, such as the ability to issue executive orders, proclamations, memoranda, executive agreements, and national security directives, that allow them to unilaterally establish law. Although presidential scholars have become increasingly interested in exploring the president's executive order authority, studies continue to assume that executive orders are an important policy tool without analyzing the policy substance that comprises the text of these directives. As a result, our knowledge of executive orders is extremely limited. This dissertation represents the first attempt to content analyze the text of all published executive orders from March 1936 through the end of the Clinton administration in January of 2001 to understand how these directives have been used for strategic policy purposes. The core question that I address is: To what degree have presidents been active in using executive orders to establish policy on their own? The following are several questions, derived from this central research question, that I explore in my dissertation: (1) Have presidents increasingly relied on executive orders to initiate policy rather than to accomplish symbolic and routine administrative goals? (2) What types of crafting strategies have presidents used to minimize institutional challenges to executive orders from other branches of government? (3) Do presidents concentrate their use of executive orders within certain policy domains? (4) Are presidents more likely to rely on executive orders to achieve their policy goals during periods of legislative stalemate? (5) How does the political environment influence presidential decisions to issue high-impact executive orders? (6) Does Congress perceive the use of executive orders as a threat to its power and what has been its response to them? I find that presidents do issue executive orders to initiate significant policy change. However, the results suggest that there has not been an aggrandizement of presidential lawmaking power across time that has seriously eroded the separation of powers principle between the executive and legislative branches. I also conclude that Congress has been a passive player in challenging the president's executive order authority. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Political Science". |
| Physical Description: | xv, 246 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilm Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-240). |