Agency Characteristics and the Use of Executive Orders

Past scholarship has offered varying explanations for why presidents choose to use executive orders. However, to this point, much of what we know of unilateral powers does not adequately address the role the bureaucracy plays in the president's decision. This research seeks to account for bureaucratic factors as a strategic presidential consideration in the employment of such directives. I classify executive orders from 1989–2012 based on which agency or agencies they apply to, and consider the importance of various characteristics (e.g. agency ideology, level of centralization, politicization, etc.) in determining which organs of the bureaucracy presidents will direct executive orders to generally. The results provide evidence that the White House directs fewer executive orders to agencies that have a politically independent leadership structure, and this result holds across a variety of measures judging an order's impact. The results demonstrate that the type of directive is crucial in determining a president's strategic decision to use executive orders, in line with previous research, and that agency centralization is one crucial component of this strategic calculation.     

Reviews

AUSTRALIA IN WORLD AFFAIRS 1961–1965. Gordon Greenwood and Norman Harper (eds.). Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1968. Pp. vii + 503. $8.75.

VIETNAM. AN AUSTRALIAN ANALYSIS. Alan Watt. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire for the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1968. Pp. 156 + appendix, bibliography and index. $3.50.

LAOS—BUFFER STATE OR BATTLEGROUND. Hugh Toye. London, Oxford University Press, 1968. Pp. xvii + 245. $6.30.

PEACEKEEPING: INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE AND CANADIAN RESPONSE. Alastair Taylor, David Cox and J. L. Granatstein. Toronto, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1968. Pp. 211. $4.50.

INDIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN CAMBODIA, LAOS AND VIETNAM, 1947–64. D. R. Desai. Berkeley, California University Press, 1968. Pp. 336. $10.00.

ASIAN FRONTIERS. STUDIES *IN A CONTINUING PROBLEM. Alastair Lamb. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1968, for the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Pp. x + 246. $3.50.

THE INDIANIZED STATES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA. G. Coedès. Translated by Susan Brown Cowing. Edited by Walter F. Vella. Canberra, Australian National University Press, 1968. Pp. xxi + 403. $12.00.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT IN MODERN JAPAN. Robert E. Ward (ed.). Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1968. Pp. xii + 637. $12.50.

MALAYSIA AND SINGAPORE IN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY. DOCUMENTS AND COMMENTARIES. Peter Boyce. Sydney, Sydney University Press, 1968. Pp. xii + 268. $6.50.

NATO: ISSUES AND PROSPECTS. Harold von Riekhoff. Toronto, Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1967. Pp. x + 170. $3.50.

SOUTH AFRICA. A STUDY IN CONFLICT. Pierre L. van den Berghe. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1967. Pp. xii + 371. (U.S.)$2.45.

STATE SUCCESSION IN MUNICIPAL LAW AND INTERNATIONAL LAW. D. P. O'Connell. London, Cambridge University Press, 1967. Vol. I, pp. i‐cxi, 1–592, £stg.7.7.0. Vol. II, pp. i‐cxi, 1–430, £stg.6.0.0.     

Reviews

LYNDON B. JOHNSON AND THE WORLD. Philip Geyelin. Frederick A. Praeger, U.SA., 1966. Pp. viii + 309. $5.95 (U.S.).

AN EXPLANATION OF DE GAULLE, Robert Aron. Harper & Row, New York, 1966. Pp. xiv + 210. $4.95 (U.S.).

DE GAULLE AND THE WORLD. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE FIFTH FRENCH REPUBLIC. W. W. Kulski. Syracuse University Press, 1966. Pp. xvi + 428. $8.50 (U.S.).

MODERN CAPITALISM. THE CHANGING BALANCE OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE POWER. Andrew Shonfield. London, Oxford University Press, for the Royal Institute of International Affair?, 1965. Pp. xvi + 456. $8.33 (Aust).

THE DISINTEGRATING MONOLITH. PLURALIST TRENDS IN THE COMMUNIST WORLD. /. D. B. Miller and T. E. Bigby (eds.). Canberra, Australian National University, 1965. Pp. xiii + 264. $6.00 (Aust).

AUSTRALIA AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Anthony Chinies Ross and Peter King. Sydney, Sydney University Press 1966. Pp. 111. $2.00 (Aust.). ASPECTS OF AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE. Max Teichmann (ed.). For The Political Studies Association, Monash University, 1966. Pp. 88. $1.25 (Aust.).

AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND THE E.E.C. H. G. Gelber. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. xii + 296. $9.50 (Aust.).

AUSTRALIAN POLICIES AND ATTITUDES TOWARD CHINA. Henry S. Albinski. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1965. Pp. 468. $14.75 (Aust.).

TOWARDS PEACE IN INDO‐CHINA. Anthony Eden {Earl of Avon). Chatham House Essays No. 14. London, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. x + 41 + 30 Select Documents. $1.80 (Aust.).

THAILAND AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA. Donald. E. Neuchterlein. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1965. Pp. 279. $6.70 (Aust).

MASK OF ASIA. THE PHILIPPINES. George FarweU. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1966. Pp. 227. $4.50 (Aust.).

JAPAN. LAND OF SUN AND STORM. Mildred Watt. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1966. Pp. 195. $5.00 (Aust).

THE ANGLO‐JAPANESE ALLIANCE: THE DIPLOMACY OF TWO ISLAND EMPIRES 1894–1907. I. H. Nish. London, Athlone Press, 1966. Pp. 420. 63/‐(stg.).

THE NEW ELITES OF TROPICAL AFRICA. P. C. Lloyd (ed.). London, Oxford University Press, 1966. For the International African Institute. Pp. x + 390. $7.80 (Aust.). This book is an attempt to open a new field in modern African studies.     

Recovering the past from above Hibabiya — an Early Islamic village in the Jordanian desert?

Britain and the Middle East were the two areas in which the technique of aerial archaeology was pioneered in the 1920s. Overwhelmingly the latter took place in Syria where a French Jesuit priest, Antoine Poidebard, worked for a generation. Further south in Transjordan — as it then was — three men presided over a brief (1927–1929) but fruitful period: an archaeologist with a passion for the newly developing technique (O.G.S. Crawford) and two pilots of the Royal Air Force with an amateur interest in what they saw beneath their wings (Flt. Lt. P.E. Maitland and Gp/Capt L.W.B. Rees). An aerial photograph published at the time seemed to identify a ‘village’ as prehistoric. Over eighty years later and just after it was destroyed, a fresh examination and the rediscovery of some crucial dating evidence have combined to identify it as, probably, an early Islamic village on the desert fringe.