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In examining and classifying the executive orders, there appears to be evidence that his
executive orders repudiated the previous Democratic regime (especially Carter) and established a new
course (see appendix). The most clear cut executive orders containing elements of repudiation and
regime creation are his regulatory orders – this fits with the idea in the Presidency literature that
Presidents seek to have power over the bureaucracy (Moe, 2003). Ten of President Reagan’s
fifty-one
executive orders dealt with government regulation, all of which deregulated industries and increased
Presidential oversight and control over the bureaucracy. Clearly, these regulatory executive orders
reduced the stronghold of liberal ideas and promoted classic Reagan conservativism.
The best known regulatory executive order, Executive Order 12291, issued by Reagan, most
clearly exemplifies President Reagan’s regime repudiation and creation. As Moe noted, Reagan
demonstrated Moe’s very theory with the issuance of his famous executive order 12291. Executive
Order 12291 fundamentally changed the landscape for agencies’ rule-making procedures. This
executive order required that cost-benefit analysis be conducted for “promulgating new regulations,
reviewing existing regulations and developing legislative proposals concerning regulations” (Reagan’s
Executive Orders, Executive Order 12291, online). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB),
part of the Executive Office of the President (EOP), was designated to be in charge of reviewing all
bureaucratic proposals, thus subjecting the bureaucracy to executive control. In contrast to other
methods of bureaucratic control such as appointments, “the Reagan order allow[ed] the president and
his agents to monitor and influence the substance of individual regulations” (Cooper and West 1988,
871). The required Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIA) was to contain systematic and neutral
assessments of the costs and benefits of bureaucratic actions in monetary terms (Cooper and West
1988, 871). However, because values such as human life and aesthetics are difficult to neutrally
quantify in dollar terms, “the Reagan administration’s policy preferences have inevitably influenced
the review process” (Cooper and West 1988, 878). The use of executive order 12291 to increase the
Convention