Factors Affecting Governors’ Decisions to Issue Executive Orders

• Date: 01 March 2017
• Author: Robert E. Crew,Alexandra G. Cockerham
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• DOI: 10.1177/0160323X17702702
• Subject Matter: General Interest

General Interest

Factors Affecting Governors’

Decisions to Issue Executive

Orders

Alexandra G. Cockerham

1

and Robert E. Crew Jr.

1

Abstract

Executive scholars suggest that unilateral action is used for two reasons: to circumvent a hostile

legislature and in response to delegation from the legislature as a means of expediting action. Extant

research on unilateral action focuses on one governmental setting, limiting our understanding of

how chief executives with different degrees of formal power use unilateral action and about how

legislatures of varying capacity respond. We examine the use of executive orders in a cross-sectional

context (the U.S. states), thus providing a more comprehensive perspective of where unilateral

action fits in relation to other executive powers and why it is used.

Keywords

governors, unilateral action, executives, bargaining, executive orders

Governors frequently use executive orders to

help shape policy. From 2004 to 2005, gover-

nors in the United States issued 3,456 executive

orders (Ferguson and Bowling 2008). Execu-

tive orders are declarations to government offi-

cials and administrative agencies that have the

forceoflawanddonotrequirelegislationto

take effect. They may be ove rridden by either

the legislature or the judiciary, but in practice,

this does not happen often (Moe and Howell

1999; Howell 2003). However, they can be

temporary in that policies enacted by executive

order can easily be undone by the next governor

(Dickinson and Gubb 2016).

The literature suggests that executives use

such orders for two distinct reasons: to circum-

vent the legislatureand in response to delegation

from the legislature. In some circumstances, the

governor, mobilized by expectations of po licy

leadership, may rely on executive orders when

the legislativecontext makes it difficultor costly

to achieve policy goals. Empirical research

suggests that the use of executive orders is dri-

ven by particular political conditions that affect

bargaining between the executive and the legis-

lature. Among the conditions enumerated in the

literature are the presence divided government,

legislative fragmentation, the presence of a

Democrat in the executive offi ce, the point of

time in the executive term, low levelsof popular

support, and if campaigning for reelection

(Howell 2003; Mayer 1999, 2002).

Comparative scholars suggest that in certain

situations, executive orders may be preferred

by the legislature (Carey and Shugart 1998;

1

Department of Political Science, Florida State University,

Tallahassee, FL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Alexandra G. Cockerham, Department of Political Science,

Florida State University, 531 Bellamy Building, Tallahassee,

FL 32306, USA.

Email: amg08k@my.fsu.edu

State and Local GovernmentReview

2017, Vol. 49(1) 6-14

ªThe Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X17702702

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