In his 2001 text With a Stroke of a Pen, Kenneth Mayer contended, "Affirmative action, or the practice of granting preferences in employment, contracting, or education on the basis of race and gender, is largely a creature of executive action" (202). In spite of the substantial role played by America's chief executives in enactment of such policies, with the exception of Mayer's brief analysis in his chapter on civil rights, explanations regarding how and why presidents have enacted such policies have eluded presidency scholars.
Thus, the primary objective of this study is to identify and explain the answer to the following questions: 1) To what extent have modern presidents used executive orders to establish federal affirmative action policy in the realm of equal employment opportunity for underrepresented groups in American society, prior to actions taken by other governmental institutions? 2) What factors explain presidential decision-making regarding executive orders pertaining to equal employment opportunity for underrepresented groups?
To accomplish this, I examine the decision-making process regarding Lyndon Johnson's issuance of Executive Order 11246 in the aftermath of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the decision-making process regarding President Nixon's issuance Executive Order 11478, which in affect brought about the institutionalization of federal affirmative action policy; the decision-making process regarding Ronald Reagan's decision not to issue an executive order drafted by his attorney general that would have eliminated all federal affirmative action programs; and the decision-making process regarding Bill Clinton's issuance of Executive Order 13087, which extended federal equal employment opportunity programs to homosexuals.