Inaction and Executive Power as Policy Decisions: The Reagan Presidency and its Response to the AIDS Crisis, 1981-1989

Date of Award

Fall 2023

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Historical & Political Studies; College of Arts & Sciences

First Advisor

Angela Kachuyevski

Second Advisor

Christopher Cerski

Abstract

This project examines the ways Reagan utilized different modes of presidential power and authority to respond to the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. Recent public health issues have been handled primarily by Republican administrations, which has uniquely shaped the pathology and public response to epidemics. In addition to analyzing presidential power and responses to public health issues, I will examine scholarly theories on the modes of presidential action and will analyze governmental communications to determine how and to what extent is the federal response to major public health crises shaped and/or affected by Federalism, the complicated interactions between the Federal government and the states. Federal level responses to major public health crises are dictated almost entirely by the adherence of individual Presidential administrations to different modalities of Federalism, and it is my belief that this administration has relied on a more unitary means of executive powers in hopes of justifying a derelict devolution of authority to the states.

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Inaction and Executive Power as Policy Decisions: The Reagan Presidency and its Response to the AIDS Crisis, 1981-1989

This project examines the ways Reagan utilized different modes of presidential power and authority to respond to the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. Recent public health issues have been handled primarily by Republican administrations, which has uniquely shaped the pathology and public response to epidemics. In addition to analyzing presidential power and responses to public health issues, I will examine scholarly theories on the modes of presidential action and will analyze governmental communications to determine how and to what extent is the federal response to major public health crises shaped and/or affected by Federalism, the complicated interactions between the Federal government and the states. Federal level responses to major public health crises are dictated almost entirely by the adherence of individual Presidential administrations to different modalities of Federalism, and it is my belief that this administration has relied on a more unitary means of executive powers in hopes of justifying a derelict devolution of authority to the states.