PRESIDENTIAL USE OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, 1953-1994

The frequency with which presidents issue executive orders is an impor tant area of inquiry for students of executive politics, because this instrument can shape policy in a quick direct manner that is outside t he purview of the legislative arena. We construct a probabilistic-base d empirical model that is used to explain variation in the number of p residential executive orders issued during the 1953-1994 annual period . Using event count regression techniques, these results indicate that the use of executive orders by presidents is significantly related to the legislative success they enjoy, the partisan composition of Congr ess, macroeconomic conditions, and the rate of growth in federal execu tive branch employment. The main implication of the study is that a pr esident's willingness to issue executive orders is significantly relat ed to a combination of legislative, public prestige, and managerial/in stitutional considerations. Thus, presidential use of executive orders is conditioned on different types of causal factors, and not solely a ttributable to the ''institutionalized presidency'' or legislative rel ations with Congress, as suggested in previous research on the topic.