President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on January 20, 2025, during his Inauguration Day. (image source)
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States, marking the beginning of his second term in the Oval Office. That day, he signed a myriad of consequential executive orders, one of which is Executive Order 14171: Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce. Although the stated intention of this order is to “maintain professionalism and accountability within the civil service,” this reasoning is rather deceptive. In reality, Executive Order 14171 undermines the bureaucracy’s autonomy in a flagrant attempt to consolidate President Trump’s executive power, ultimately threatening American democracy and demonstrating a pathway to democratic erosion.
What is Executive Order 14171?
Executive Order 14171 reinstates (an amended version of) Executive Order 13957: Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service. Executive Order 13957 was initially signed on October 21, 2020, during President Trump’s first term in office, but was later revoked by Executive Order 14003 under the Biden Administration. Executive Order 14171, therefore, instructs executive agency heads, or the director of the Office of Personnel Management if deemed necessary, to reclassify competitive service members possessing positions of “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character and that are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition” under Schedule Policy/Career (formerly named Schedule F). Under this reclassification, civil servants become excepted service members, and thus, lose immense protections against “at-will” removal established by the Civil Service Reform Act (1978). Therefore, these civil servants can be fired without due process and replaced by individuals without merit-based considerations, allowing greater opportunity for the Trump Administration to fill the civil service with unqualified party loyalists, rather than nonpartisan experts.
Why is This Order Cause for Concern?
As UChicago Law Professors Huq and Ginsburg articulate, an autonomous bureaucracy is vital for a healthy democracy, as they “operate[] according to written rules and create[] stable expectations.” They further illustrate that an autonomous bureaucracy upholds a healthy democracy by: (1) acting as a check for the misuse of state power for officials’ personal or professional gain, (2) slowing hasty democratic change and ensuring that democratic decision-making remains practical, and (3) preventing an anti-democrat from benefitting himself through acts of patronage. Therefore, as Huq and Ginsburg explain, the tactic of expanding executive power through the undermining of bureaucratic autonomy is a pathway for “democratic erosion”: an elected leader’s slow undermining of democracy over time from within. For a bureaucracy to remain autonomous, and thus, preserve democracy, it must be composed of nonpartisan experts committed to advancing national interests, yet Executive Order 14171 provides Trump with a mechanism to ensure the bureaucracy is instead composed of political appointees. Rather than “operating according to written rules,” therefore creating “stable expectations” in the execution of governmental processes, partisan employees will succumb to political pressures and act in the interest of their partisan leader.
So, is Executive Order 14171 a Pathway for Democratic Erosion?
Yes, Executive Order 14171 institutes a pathway for democratic erosion, as it strategically grants President Trump the opportunity to fill the civil service—a part of the bureaucracy—with loyalists committed to his agenda, undermining the autonomy of the bureaucracy and thereby expanding his executive power. This directly exemplifies Huq and Ginsburg’s proposed pathway of democratic erosion through the centralization and politicization of executive power. By eliminating protections against “at-will” termination, this Executive Order not only allows Trump to replace non-loyalists with party loyalists, but also acts as a looming threat to ensure civil servants continue to act in accordance with his directives, rather than national interests. As Law Professor Varol further articulates, “With sufficient tools for punishing or rewarding agents—such as by firing, reassigning, or promoting them—the regime can ensure that the agents exercise their discretion in conformity with the principal’s interests.” To put it simply, Trumpism is the regime, President Trump is the principal, reclassified civil servants are his agents, and Executive Order 14171 is a tool for democratic erosion.
Is this Pathway to Democratic Erosion Inevitable?
While Executive Order 14171 attempts to undermine the bureaucracy’s check on executive power, the judiciary has the potential to serve as an institutional check to prevent this threat to bureaucratic autonomy from coming to fruition. On February 6, 2025, a lawsuit challenging this Executive Order was filed by Protect Democracy and Selendy Gay PLLC on behalf of the Government Accountability Project and the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE). They primarily argue that the implementation of Trump’s order “violate[s] the Civil Service Reform Act (CSRA) and thereby the power of Congress to establish, define, and regulate the civil service system to protect the public interest in ensuring Americans have a federal workforce grounded in merit and free from corruption, political bias, and improper influences.” As this lawsuit progresses, the strength of American democracy faces a crucial test: will institutions act as effective safeguards against democratic erosion, or will President Trump be granted the authority to use the bureaucracy to undermine democracy from within?
Executive Order 14171 will help Trump consolidate his power in the executive branch. It is usually the first step in his plan to make sure you can pass new policies and laws without consequence from his administration. With the development of Project 2025 going smoothly, we can expect more of the goals of the project to be passed when the federal workforce gets filled with his loyalists. Another interesting case of polarization is Trump bringing people into his administration who are either very Unhealthy or have a criminal background. It makes you wonder what his idea of qualified is…