The Executive Order

How the executive branch—not the president alone—formulates executive orders, and how this process constrains the chief executive's ability to act unilaterally The president of the United States is commonly thought to wield extraordinary personal power through the issuance of executive orders. In fact, the vast majority of such orders are proposed by federal agencies and shaped by negotiations that span the executive branch. By Executive Order provides the first comprehensive look at how presidential directives are written—and by whom. 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. Challenging popular conceptions about the scope of presidential power, By Executive Order reveals how the executive branch holds the power to both enact and constrain the president’s will.

In David Fisher's The Executive Order, this one-step-ahead-of-the-headlines thriller, a reporter races to uncover a conspiracy when he learns that the post-Trump president elected to heal the nation has more sinister plans. In a post-Trump and Biden world, an independent senator, Ian Wrightman, is elected president to heal a nation frayed by extreme partisanship. After years of reporting chaos in the White House, digital journalist Rollie Stone and his colleagues embrace the normalcy. But after the country is rocked by a series of devastating terrorist attacks, the new administration springs into action and begins rolling out executive orders that claim to protect the American people—while slowly chipping away at their constitutional freedoms. Rollie Stone is a wounded warrior whose hi-tech Mighty Chair serves as his unique assistant in investigations. When he uncovers evidence that the terrorist attacks are being coordinated much closer to home, he knows he needs to get this information into safe hands—but the president has declared war, and through his new executive powers is rounding up journalists, dissenters, and anyone else who gets in his way. Forced on the run with the help of an underground resistance movement, Rollie finds himself in a race for his life to reveal the truth. But who can he trust? In this all-too-realistic thriller inspired by the Sinclair Lewis classic, It Can't Happen Here, one journalist will do whatever it takes to stop his country turning from democracy to dictatorship.

Modern presidents are CEOs with broad powers over the federal government. The United States Constitution lays out three hypothetically equal branches of government--the executive, the legislative, and the judicial--but over the years, the president, as head of the executive branch, has emerged as the usually dominant political and administrative force at the federal level. In fact, Daniel Gitterman tells us, the president is, effectively, the CEO of an enormous federal bureaucracy. Using the unique legal authority delegated by thousands of laws, the ability to issue executive orders, and the capacity to shape how federal agencies write and enforce rules, the president calls the shots as to how the government is run on a daily basis. Modern presidents have, for example, used the power of the purchaser to require federal contractors to pay a minimum wage and to prohibit contracting with companies and contractors that knowingly employ unauthorized alien workers. Presidents and their staffs use specific tools, including executive orders and memoranda to agency heads, as instruments of control and influence over the government and the private sector. For more than a century, they have used these tools without violating the separation of powers. Calling the Shots demonstrates how each of these executive powers is a powerful weapon of coercion and redistribution in the president's political and policymaking arsenal.

This timely glimpse into corporate America will appeal to all fascinated by politics, history, and the links between documentary and fine art.

Explores whether and how modern presidents use executive orders to establish policy unconstrained by the legislative process.

A riveting novel by MWA Grand Master Award winner Max Allan Collins. In Eastern Europe four CIA agents are dead--geopolitical pawns caught in border dispute cross fire. Why were they there? Who sent them? Not even the President knows. Back in Washington, the Secretary of the Interior dies from an apparent allergic shock. As details emerge, so do suspicions that she was murdered. Investigating their respective cases, ex-Secret Service agent Joe Reeder and FBI Special Situations Task Force leader Patti Rogers recognize a dangerous conspiracy is in play. When suspects and government contacts are killed off with expert precision, their worst fears are confirmed. As the country edges closer and closer to war, Reeder and Rogers must protect the President--and each other--from an unseen enemy who's somehow always one step ahead. The stakes have never been higher, against killers who might be anywhere, and Reeder and Rogers have no one to trust but each other.