Policy by Other Means: Alternative Adoption by Presidents

Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress bears responsibility for establishing national policy through legislation, but in recent years that power has often been eclipsed by presidents adopting public policy by other means. Steven A. Shull offers a systematic study of the relative importance of four tools presidents use to create policy without going through Congress: budgeting, executive orders, executive agreements, and commitment of troops. Employing both statistical analyses of recent presidents’ use of alternative policy means and case studies of each tool, Shull investigates the factors that affect whether and when the chief executive becomes, in effect, the chief policy maker, budgeter, or diplomat. He examines individual, institutional, and environmental variables, as well as several controls that may influence the choice of unilateral or alternative policy actions. Shull’s quantitative analyses help to illustrate not only trends over time in the independent actions of presidents but also the complexity of the factors that influence those trends. Scholars of the presidency, of executive-legislative relations, and of public policy will gain important insight into presidential power from Shull’s careful analysis of unilateral and other alternative policy adoption.