As we saw in the last section, on Congress, even though Democrats now control the presidency and have slim majorities in both the House and Senate, it is nonetheless difficult fro them to act on their policy priorities.  The numerous choke points in the American legislative process — the filibuster, in particular — enable Republicans in Congress to block many Democratic initiatives.

In this situation, Presidents often turn to tools they can use unilaterally, such as executive orders; as the NPR article shows, President Biden’s use of them thus far is near record pace.  But is that a good thing?  What are the upsides and downsides of governing by executive order?