Testing Presidential Management

Abstract

This chapter returns to the question of the conditions that underly decisions to use a centralized executive order versus a decentralized one. For presidents seeking to minimize their managerial transaction costs, what matters in that calculation? Do the same factors that influence the decision to issue an executive order (the focus of the literature in this area to date) affect the manner in which that order is formulated? According to the approach taken here, characteristics specific to individual orders and the agencies linked to them should instead be the primary influences over how presidents manage the process of policy development.