Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor in Political Science at Tufts University. My research interests include American political institutions, separation of power politics, presidential unilateral policymaking, executive branch politics, and congressional oversight. My work is featured in Political Research Quarterly.
My book project examines presidents’ use of unilateral actions to influence policy amid incessant inter-branch conflict. I develop a theory of how presidents strategically select between distinct unilateral directives, based on differences in their traceability and the information external and internal political actors have to respond. Overall, I find that presidents deploy less traceable directives when facing political resistance, but engage in more public-facing unilateralism when such constraints are absent and their incentives to credit claim are high. This book project offers an explanation for when and why presidents are constrained, based on the trade-offs between their different unilateral strategies. Importantly, it demonstrates how exactly presidents can still powerfully impact policy, even in the face of fierce opposition.
Before joining Tufts, I completed my Ph.D. in Political Science with a focus on American politics and methodology at Vanderbilt University in 2023. I earned my BA in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 2018.
Meredith McLain 