Vacancies and Presidential Unilateral Action

• In Event: Executive Power over the Bureaucracy

Brief Overview

This paper explains how vacancies affect the president’s decision to use executive orders and executive memoranda. It evaluates its claims with new data on appointee vacancies and unilateral action during the last three Administrations.

Authors

• Meredith Eavan McLain, Vanderbilt University

• Christopher Mark Piper, Vanderbilt University