Executive orders are not always effective, and presidential attempts to gain control of agencies has the potential to backfire

This week has brought the news that House Speaker John A. Boehner is planning a lawsuit against President Obama over his use of executive orders after months of concerns from Republicans over what they term Obama’s ‘imperial presidency’. But are the executive orders issued by the president actually acted upon by the agencies meant to carry them out? Using twenty years of data on executive orders, Joshua Kennedy finds that, on average, any given executive order has only a 2.5 percent probability of being implemented. He finds that the president can increase this probability by naming the agency involved and if the agency is headed by an ideological friend. He also warns that if the president appoints agency staff on the basis of their politics, rather than competence, then they may risk ending up with less competent management, which will drag down their implementation of executive orders.