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- Title
Presidential Strategy amidst the "Broken" Appointments Process.
- Authors
Piper, Christopher
- Abstract
One of the notable features of the most recent presidential administrations has been the increasing prevalence of vacancies in presidentially appointed and Senate‐confirmed positions. This article explains when and how presidents actively take control of those positions once they become vacant. It evaluates its claims with original data on the most important Senate‐confirmed positions during the first year of the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, with a total of nearly 5,000 quarterly observations of 1,009 administration‐position cases. Estimates from Markov multistate models reveal that presidents use non‐default acting officials more frequently in ideologically opposed agencies, agencies connected to their campaign priorities, and the highest tier of leadership positions. Further, presidents pursue confirmation sparingly, often opting instead to use non‐default acting officials for extended periods of time. These results suggest that presidents have significant discretion over the leadership of the executive establishment that is at odds with our separation of powers system of government and the Senate's constitutional role to provide advice and consent on presidential appointees.
- Subjects
PRESIDENTS of the United States; APPOINTMENT to public office; UNITED States. Congress. Senate; PRESIDENTIAL administrations; MARKOV processes; SEPARATION of powers
- Publication
Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2022, Vol 52, Issue 4, p843
- ISSN
0360-4918
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/psq.12804