The Unitary Presidency

Dodds, Graham G.

doi:10.4324/9781351052788

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Presidential efforts to exert control over the bureaucracy often reflect the unitary executive theory, which is one of the most controversial constitutional theories of the past several decades and has been the subject of various scholarly studies (Barilleaux and Kelley 2010;Barilleaux and Maxwell 2017;Calabresi and Yoo 2008;Sollenberger 2017, 2020;Dodds 2019;Skowronek, Dearborn, and King 2021;Waterman 2009). Put simply, the theory of the unitary executive holds that the president alone embodies all executive power and therefore should have virtually unlimited power to direct people within the vast executive branch of the U.S. federal government, including all of its agencies.…”

Section: The Unitary Executive Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Presidential Control of Independent Agencies’ Leadership and Personnel: A Two‐Case Study of Interbranch Contestation over the Bureaucracy and the Unitary Executive under Donald Trump

Dodds¹

2022

Pres Stud Q

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article assesses recent developments in the interbranch struggle over control of the bureaucracy, specifically independent federal agencies and the impact of the unitary executive theory during the presidency of Donald Trump. It examines controversies that involved two Supreme Court cases about independent agencies: Lucia v. SEC (2018), which addressed administrative law judges and the president's appointment power, and Seila Law v. CFPB (2020), which addressed agency leadership and the president's removal power. The two cases have received some attention from legal scholars, but they are not well known among presidency scholars, and they are important for understanding how the unitary executive theory and the interbranch struggle over control of the bureaucracy have developed in recent years.

show abstract

Section: The Unitary Executive Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Presidential Control of Independent Agencies’ Leadership and Personnel: A Two‐Case Study of Interbranch Contestation over the Bureaucracy and the Unitary Executive under Donald Trump

Dodds¹

2022

Pres Stud Q

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The rise of the theory of the unitary executive has been well documented and critiqued elsewhere (Barilleaux and Kelley 2010;Burke 2016;Calabresi and Yoo 2008;Crouch, Rozell, and Sollenberger 2017;Dodds 2019). It captured the most popular attention during the George W. Bush administration's claims about presidential powers in foreign affairs to justify actions taken in the "War on Terror" (see, e.g., Yoo 2005).…”

Section: The Institutionalization Of the Unitary Executive Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Law: “Witch Hunts” and the Rule of Law: Trump, the Special Counsel, and the Department of Justice

Harriger¹

2019

Pres Stud Q

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article summarizes the previous behavior of presidents subjected to independent counsel investigations, and compares President Donald Trump's behavior to theirs. It concludes that while Trump's behavior is part of a larger pattern of presidential use of various executive prerogatives to try to counteract independent counsels, it departs from that pattern in several distinct ways. I conclude that several developments in the broader political environment over the last several decades have contributed to his distinctive behavior, including the highly fragmented media market, the degree of partisan polarization in the electorate, the conservative populist distrust of federal law enforcement, and the mainstreaming of the unitary executive theory in the courts and executive branch.

show abstract

Is the President a King? The Unitary Executive Theory and the Presidency of Donald J. Trump

Dodds

2023

Springer Studies on Populism, Identity Politics and Social Justice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Unitary Presidency

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Presidential Control of Independent Agencies’ Leadership and Personnel: A Two‐Case Study of Interbranch Contestation over the Bureaucracy and the Unitary Executive under Donald Trump

Presidential Control of Independent Agencies’ Leadership and Personnel: A Two‐Case Study of Interbranch Contestation over the Bureaucracy and the Unitary Executive under Donald Trump

The Law: “Witch Hunts” and the Rule of Law: Trump, the Special Counsel, and the Department of Justice

Is the President a King? The Unitary Executive Theory and the Presidency of Donald J. Trump

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About