By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power

In this eye-opening book, Andrew Rudalevige examines more than five hundred executive orders from the 1930s to today--as well as more than two hundred others negotiated but never issued--shedding vital new light on the multilateral process of drafting supposedly unilateral directives. He draws on a wealth of archival evidence from the Office of Management and Budget and presidential libraries as well as original interviews to show how the crafting of orders requires widespread consultation and compromise with a formidable bureaucracy. Rudalevige explains the key role of management in the presidential skill set, detailing how bureaucratic resistance can stall and even prevent actions the chief executive desires, and how presidents must bargain with the bureaucracy even when they seek to act unilaterally.

Andrew Rudalevige is the Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. His books include Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation (Princeton) and The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate.