The unitary executive theory holds that the US president embodies all executive power and thus may control everything in the executive branch. Critics say this view is inaccurate and politically dangerous. This book examines the theory and the history of controversies about unitary executive power.

Graham G. Dodds is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Concordia University in Montreal. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and in France and has worked at the Brookings Institution and for a Member of Congress. He is the author of the book Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics and is frequently interviewed by journalists about U.S. politics.

Introduction: The Theory of the Unitary Executive; 1. Nearly Two Centuries of Unitary Precedents; 2. Explicit Unitary Battles in the 1980s and 1990s; 3. The Unitary Executive in the Twenty-First Century; 4. Normative Assessment of the Unitary Executive; 5. Empirical Assessment of the Unitary Executive; Conclusion: Unitary Politics; Epilogue