The Indecisions of 1789: Strategic Ambiguity and the Imaginary Unitary Executive (Part I)

American Civil–Military Relations and Presidential Power of Removal

“…However, there is little discussion of the other reasons why presidents might remove officials other than to install a more preferred individual than the incumbent (such as removal to signal a policy change to external audiences or perhaps for misconduct or excessive deviation from the president's policy preferences, among other potential agency problems) or the conditions that might moderate the president's use of removal power. There are arguments over whether presidents should have the power to remove, as is found in the literature on the unitary theory of the executive (Pika & Maltese, 2010;Shugerman, 2020;Yoo et al, 2005), and there are intriguing historical and legalistic treatments of the power of removal (Hoxie, 1984;McDonald, 1994), but the question here is why and under what conditions do presidents exercise removal power?…”