Calling the Shots: The President, Executive Orders, and Public Policy Brochura - 2017

Modern presidents are CEOs with broad powers over the federal government

While the U.S. Constitution establishes three branches of government--the executive, the legislative, and the judicial--the executive branch as embodied in the president has emerged over the years as the dominant political and administrative force at the federal level. In fact, Daniel Gitterman tells us, the president is the de facto CEO of an enormous federal bureaucracy.

The federal government is the single biggest purchaser of goods and services in the U.S. economy. It is also an employer of more than three million workers. The president, as chief executive, sits on top of all this.

With the authority to issue executive orders and the capacity to shape how federal agencies write and enforce rules, the president controls how the government implements and changes policy every day. Modern presidents have, for example, been able to require federal contractors to pay a minimum wage, to prohibit human trafficking, and to encourage environmental sustainability.

For more than a century, presidents have put to use the tools at their disposal to bring about policy shifts without violating the separation of powers. Calling the Shots demonstrates how executive power is a powerful weapon of coercion and redistribution in the president's political and policymaking arsenal.