9511444 Mayer This research investigates the nature and extent of independent presidential policy making authority embodied in executive orders and administrative directives. Much of the literature on the presidency suggests that presidents cannot make substantive policy without congressional cooperation. Executive orders that are issued under the president's statutory or constitutional powers as chief executive are, according to this framework, an insignificant source of presidential power. At the same time, however, presidents have on a number of occasions issued unilateral orders with profound political and social consequences, and policy makers themselves recognize the potential for independent presidential action. The issue of how much independent authority presidents have remains a basic empirical question that is not adequately addressed in the presidency literature. The starting point of the study is that if presidents use orders and directives for strategic purposes, then their use should vary predictably according to a president's strategic situation and political context. To investigate this phenomenon, the project analyzes three separate types of data on executive orders and administrative directives: 1) a time series analysis of all executive orders and administrative directives issued since 1935, with the goal of uncovering statistical patterns in how, and under what circumstances, orders are issued; 2) a random sample drawn from the universe of orders and directives. This sample is coded to identify those orders which have substantive policy or political significance (a result that, by inference, may be applied to the entire population of orders). This subsample of important orders is in turn subjected to analysis to determine what aspects of a presidents strategic situation and political context affect their use; 3) case studies of approximately 10 of the most important executive orders. The project sill substantially enhance the un derstanding of executive authority and the balance of policy making power between the Presidency and Congress. It also advances the state of presidency research, by moving beyond a "president"-centered focus to a more general conception of presidential behavior that cuts across administrations. ***
