This dissertation explores the rise of the modern American presidency through the combination of three factors: unilateral presidential behavior, congressional delegation, and judicial discretion. The first substantive chapter explores the rise of the unilateral presidency prior to FDR and the factors that structured the development of unilateral presidential behavior. The second substantive chapter investigates the motives members of Congress hard to delegate budgetary powers to the presidency in the case of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. The third substantive chapter structures a theory of judicial discretion of presidential power using federal court case opinion from the founding forward.
