The Weakest Power: A Theory of Strategic Unilateral Executive Authority (thesis)

Abstract

Aside from executive orders, this paper was exploring executive power as a whole using executive orders only as a proxy. Even by just looking at executive orders, the picture of American politics we see today is so much different than what we would have seen at our nation's founding. The framers of the Constitution envisioned a government built on checks and balances with a specific branch intended to create laws, one to judge their legality, and one to execute the laws. What we see today is vastly different. While checks and balances remain in place, the unilateral power of the executive has changed the political calculus in the US, especially considering how the rest of the government has changed around the presidency. [From Conclusion]