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Abstract

Federal level responses to major public health crises are dictated almost entirely by the adherence of individual presidential administrations to different modalities of Federalism. This project examines the ways in which the Reagan administration utilized different modes of presidential power and authority to respond to the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s. While much is known about the impact of HIV/AIDS on men who have sex with men (MSM), the larger queer community, and the overall response of the Reagan Administration to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, less is known about the specific way in which Reagan and his administration used executive powers in that response. Therefore, the focus of this project is to analyze how the Reagan administration employed different forms of presidential power and authority in addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, from the first reports in 1981 through the end of his second term as president in 1989. In addition to analyzing presidential power and responses to public health crises, I will discuss scholarly theories on the modes of presidential action and will examine governmental communications to determine how and to what extent the federal response to major public health crises is shaped and/or affected by Federalism. I will demonstrate how the Reagan administration acted unilaterally in the hopes of justifying its derelict devolution of authority to the state administrations and relied on a more unitary means of executive powers.

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