474 PART FIVE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20 THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 475 AA2年E5U The president's preeminence as domestic policy leader does not mean that Second,the president's appointees extend his reach into the huge federal Congress no longer plays a significant role.As we saw in Chapter 18,some bureaucracy,helping him exert some influence on the day-to-day workings of The Increase in Presidential major policy initiatives of recent decades-including labor-management rela- govemment.Quite simply,the president puts"his peopleintopotions af It has been said that tions,public housing,atomic energy,and environmental protection-have the executive branch.Not surprisingly,presidents have tended to appoint 三 emanated from Congress,which has also modified or rejected many presiden- individuals who share their partisan views.However,the degree to which the tial proposals during this period.Moreover,Congress tends to seek the presidents have stressed partisanship has varted considerably.Among recent president's leadership only on particular types of legislative measures- presidents,Reagan was the most adamant about partisan loyalty as a criterion responsibility that the principally those that address truly national issues from a national perspective. for appointment;he perceived career bureaucrats as hostile to many of his ideas president bas acquired during (The president's domestic policy role is discussed further in Chapter 21.) and believed that he needed Republicans as conservative as himself in top the twentieth century?Is the positions.Of Reagan's first-term appointees.82 percent we Republicans 15 axlom stricthy accurab,give percent were unaffliated,and 3 percent were Democrats.By comparison,of that the provisions for Carter's.58 percent were fellow,35 percent were presldential authority in Staffing the Presidency Artide I of the Constitution unaffiliated,and 7 percent were Repubttcans. nw The duties of the modern presidency far exceed the capacity of one person.Thus the president must rely on an increasingly large staff to carry out the PRESIDENTIAL APPOINTEES AND THE PROBLEM OF CONTROL responsibilities of his office,a situation that Thomas Cronin calls the "swelling'" of the presidency." Although the president's appointees are a valuable asset,they also pose a The president gains important advantages from his authority to appoint more problem:because they are so numerous,they represent a challenge to his than 2000 assistants,experts,and administrators.First,his appointees are a control of the presidential office.Most appointees are not under the president's source of policy information.Modern policymaking depends on detailed direct supervision and have considerable freedom to act on their own initiative information,and control of information is a source of considerable power. -not necessarily in accord with the president's wishes.Truman had a wall chart in the Oval Office listing more than 100 officials who reported directly to him,and often told visitors,"I cannot even see all of these men.let alone actually study what they are doing."Since Truman's time the number of No ome softo hs n时had the "Sources of Domestic Policy"in Harvey C.Mansdeld,ed.Cougress esnowaitulity con fesly 兰解 m,1975L10B-109. bureaucratic agencies has more than doubled,compounding the problem of presidential control over subordinates. ndersta=d ahat if的eo To assist him in administering the executive branch of the federal govern- 4写7u州BsC当 ment,the president appoints the members of the make up the 用Had4 wily.There is mo Executive Office of the President and the heads of the various cabinet departments.These and other presidential appointees differ in their back- responsibility hat binds him, grounds,proximity to the Oval Office,duties,and policy views,All these factors 2 nd he i出ver allowed to affect the president's ability to control their activities,as can be seen from a furget that he is President. closer examination of who his appointees are and what they do. Harry S Truman The Executive Office of the President In 1939 Congress created the Executive Office of the President (EOP]on the fecommendation of a committee formed in 1936 by Franklin D.Roosevelt and headed by the management expert Louis Brownlow.The Brownlow committee had concluded that the efective functloning of the executive branch required a level of coordination that only a well-staffed presidency could provide Since 1939 the EOP has become the command center of the executive The White House coetaled on Davis.Arerican Presideecy.296. the fin结cce,e resident's 1949, Our Super-Govemm We Richard P Nathan.The Presidency (New Yors:Wiley.1983)36. the second 1201y1975
476 PART FIVE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20*THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 477 THE VICE-PRESIDENT AS POLICY ADVISER Though the vice-president works in the White House,he Other vice-presidents have played much smaller roles. is not necessarily a member of the president's inner cirde Marw of them were selected for their ability to attract of advisets.The Constitution assigns the vice-president votes rather than because of their cose association with no polky authority.Accordingly.whether the vice. the president.Lyndan was Senate majority leader president plays a lange or small role is the president's before becoming John Kennedy's vice-president and was selected because Kennedy beljeved that he would not win bility than any preous vice-president had received,and the presidency unle carried Texas,Johnson's home Mondale served as one of his confidanta.George Bush state.As vice-president,lohnson was given few tasks and ed a responaibilitie,playing second d o Kennedys per and lochr such as Ted Sorensen and McGeorge with Congress and as chairman of the crisis-management Bundy.When Kennedy was assassinated in 1963,Johnson team within the National Security Council.When he suddonly was presdent an正Kn9aerm4 became president, fawe wished that they had been more attentive to [ohnson FIGURE 20-I Executive Office branch and is itself a small bureaucracy.It currently consists of ten arganiza dutses he had performed during his vice-presidency. while he was vice-president of the President tions (see Figure 20-1).The leading ones are the White House Office (WHO) The Executive Dlfico of the President acts as the president's which consists of the president's closest personal advisers;the Office of Management and Budgel (MB)which consists of experts who formulate and obtaining the president's approval,leading others to question whether he is then administer the federal budget:the National Security Council (NSC),which actually in charge of his office.Finally,advisers have sometimes been so intent a六 assists the president on foreign and milltary affairs:and the (ounctl of on maintaining their close relationship with the president that they have done t Manual1957/1988 Economic Advisers (CEA)which advlses the prrsident an the national econo- him a disservice by not challenging his views.Recognizing this poesibility. my. President John F.Kennedy,during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962,sometimes asked his advisers to meet without him.His purpose was to allow the discussion Presidential Assistunts Of the EOP's ten organizations,the White_Hause- of possibilities that might not be raised if he were present.Kennedy had not Office serves the president most directly and personally.The WHO consists of used this approach in planning the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation of 1961,and the president's personal assistants,including his close personal advisers,press he was determined to have the benefit of opposing opinions during the new agents,legislative and group haison aides,and special assistants for domestic crisis and pollcy.They work in the White House,and the president can hire and fre them at will.Total loyalty to the preskdent is expected of these staff members A president's personal assistants do much of his legwork for him and serve as his main source of advice.Because of their closeness and loyalty to the president,they are among the most powerful individuals in Washington.They are not expert advisers in the sense of having studied or worked for years in a specialized policy field,but they often possess political savyy When George Bush took office,he appointed John Sununu as his top White House assistant. Sununu had been governor of New Hampshire for six years Before becoming The president's persanal advisaes Bush's chief of staff,he had headed Bush's victorious New Hampshire primary n prenrice valab金8山idanc全 bt they can also be a source af campaign,which was widely seen as the tumning point in Bush's drive toward the 1988 Republican nomination. h wn eatly in his farst team Although no modern president could function effectively without his close hi质Four aldes.lame assistants,they can aiso c use problems.In trying to conserve the president's Clark Edwin time,they may withhold views or information that he could use.At times advisers have also presumed to undertake important initiatives without first y恤e of perjury and Meese 240 wis under a cloud for sidential Office,"in Amold 1.Meltsner,ed.Polirics and the Doel kind af questlonable behavior. (Paul Conklin)
478 PART FIVE*ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20 THE OFFICE OP THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 479 ANALYZE元HEt55E为 Policy Erperts The president is also served by the policy experts in the EOP's The White Homse Staff other organizations,who include economists,legal analysts,national security Power and Cantrol specialists,and others.Modern policymaking cannot be conducted in the The modem presidency absence of such expert advice and knowledge.For example,the president has broad responsibilities for guiding the nation's economy.Advising him in this effort is the Council of Economic Advisers,headed by three economists who are assisedby an expert staff.The CEA gathers information to develop indicators of this development enlange the the economy's strength and applies economic theories to various policy president's power?In hat alternatives.In the early 1960s the CEA chairman,Walter Heller,advised ways has惯t时ted new President Kennedy to propose a cut in business taxes as a means of bringing the Presidents rely on thelr problems for the presidend? Cite examples that spport nation's economy out of a recession.Kennedy acoepted Heller's advice, persuaded Congress to enact the legislation,and gained public support when ants in the economy rebounded. The advantages of having expert advice are sometimes offset by the fact that the Cuban misslle crisis in 1962. this group ol advisers to many policy specialists have a narrow view of the nation's priorities.They may Presldent lohn F.Kennedy met think that problems in their policy area are of utmost urgency,and they tend to repeatedly to help him arrve at believe that their preferred solutions are the only satisfactory ones.This outlook his decision to use a navat does not always serve the president's needs.Proposing "the best policy blockade as a means of fordng solution"means little if Cong ress finds it politically unacceptable.Another the Soviet to withdra drawback is that policy experts do not always turn out to be"team players."The norm in the White House is that any disagreements with administration policy should be expressed only in private.Once the president has publicly announced important iigures in any administration.They understand that their first his position,the presidential assissant is expected to support it.However,poy responsibility is to carry out the president's instructons.Nevertheless,the experts do not always find it easy to bite their tongues.The Haryard cconomist president chooses most of them for their prominence in politics,business Matrtin Fetdsfein,who headed the CEA until he resigned-under White House sovernment,or the professions.They may also bring to their office a high level pressure in 194 an election year)publicly and troquonly sated that the of policy expertise and a group commitment.For exampletheretary of Reagan administration's huge budget deficit was a malor threat to the nation's commerce is normally a-prominent businese leader committod to the business economy;his stance directly contradicted Reagan's public claims that the budget ommunity's goals.The loyalty of cahinet secretaries can be split between their eficit was a secondary problem commitment to the president and their concern for interests represented by their departments.Their stature and ideas can sometimes lead them to act too The President's Cabinet independently.Carter believed that he had no choice in 1978 but to fire Joseph Califano,his secretary of health,education,and welfare,for disloyalty after The heads of the fourteen executive departments,such as the Department of Califano had repeatedly expressed disagreement with Carter's policies in Defense and the Department of Agriculture,constitute the president's cabinet. statements to reporters and members of Congress. They are appointed by the president,subject to confirmation by Congress. The Constitution says nothing about a cabinet.It has become a tradition but has no formal authority.When Abraham Lincoln was once unanimously Other Presidential Appointees opposed by his cabinet,he said,"Seven nays and one aye-the ayes have it." The president also appoints the directors and top deputies of other federal Although the cabinet once served as the president's main advisory group,it has agencembeoffederal commissions,and heads of regulatory agencies. not played this role since Herbert Hoover's administration.Dwight D.Eisen- Although they serve the president,these appointees sometimes come to adopt hower tried in the 1950s to restore the cabinet to its former prominence,but he the perspective of the bureaucratic organizations in which they work.They may eventually gave up.As national issues have become increasingly complex,the be "captured"by their organization because they spend nearly all their time on cabinet has become outmoded as a policymaking forum:department heads are its activities and depend heavily on the expertise of career bureaucrats.About likely to understand issues only in their respective policy areas Cabinet 70 percent of presidential appointees have two years or less of federal meetings have been largely reduced to gatherings at which only the most government experience,and most are less familiar with agency activities than general matters are discussed. are the careerists who work under them. Although the cabinet as a collective dectsionmaking body is a thing of the past,the cabinet members,as individuals who head major departments,are Richard M.Pios.Aruerkan Pres 241 "B.Goedon Hoxi.'The Cabinet in the American Presideney,1789-1984"Presidential Sradics Qa2e5pnR1984276-228. ngs Inshe
480 PART FIVE ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20 THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 481 If presidential career bureaucrats,they must gain their confidence.However,career bureaucrats are likely to be more committed to their agencles'goals than to the president's."The civil service system protects President careerists,so they cannot easily be removed from their positions even if they work against the president's objectives.To gain their cooperation presidential appointees must achieve a working compromise between the president's goals and those of the bureaucratic organizations.Such delicate maneuvering requires managerial skills that many inexperienced appointees lack.Chapters 22 and 23 examine more closely the relationship between presidential appointees and 2, career bureaucrats. X.oo ORGANIZING THE EXTENDED PRESIDENCY Effective use of appointees by the president requires two-way communication. The president cannot possibly meet regularly with all his appointees or views to them. Patterns of Organization Presidents have relied on a variety of techniques to regulate the flow of information to and from the Oval Offce.One arrangement,used by Eisenhow. er.Nixon,Reagan,and Bush,resembles the way the military and most corporations are organized.It places the president at the top of an organization- al pyramid and his closest personal advisers,each of who m is assigned specific responsibilities,at the second level (see Figure 20-2).All information and Clashing,Beliets within the Executive Beanch,"American 90u :1976461. recommendations from lower levels must be submitted to these top aides,who FIGURE 20-2 Man decide whether these reports should be forwarded to the president.This tey:The Pyra 3心11入 hierarchical arrangement,with its multiple levels of supervision,permits morr effective sontml of subordinat Hietarchtcal organization also has the advan- Organization In fhe pyramid form that some tage of freeing thepresident-fremt the need to deal with the many small issues presidents have ed to organlze Heads of State and Heads of lower house (Bundestag)of that reach the Whiie Homse heir stals,informaloo and Government the federal Assembly The Coamtry Head ol State Head of eetm台ondationts that Most demnocrades divide the Unibed States )s one of a tew A major disadvantage of the pyramid form is the danger that presidential owr-level odvisees wish to countries in which the roles Canada Govemor general advisers will make decisions that should he passed along for the president to head of state:who is the bed of head of make.Another disadvantage is that the pyramid form can result in misdirected onial leader,and of ihe er-blocked information The president may be denied access to apinions that ho is the In Great France President Premier his close advisers decide are wrone or nnimportant.The tisk is that he wit not evel aide be able to take important views and facts into account as he makes his policy e chdef of sa Grea Edtatn ●Ueen Prmne minister lealy President n0的inisbet decisions,so that the shances that they will prove ineffecfive are increased. prime minisber,respectively. president must devobe fapan Prime mlnister President President A second approach to staff organization was developed by Franklin D. In demmnoeracies without a cniderable time bo Roosevelt and adapted by Presidents Kennedy,Iohnson.Ford,and Carter.Each hereditary manarchy,the eremonial functio线such a移 Prime ministet placed himself at the center of the organization,accessible to a fairly large position of head of state is dinners foe vsting heads of nuntber of advtsers (see Figure 20-3).This "hub-ot-the-wheel (or circular) stahe.The maicr advantaes West Germany choeen by the legislattre. deat alone is -ferm attows more information to president and provides.him witha West Germany's head of greater range of options and opinions.Roosevelt and Kennedy-were partieularl state,for ple,is a hecerefnaianl and that his adept at operating within this organizatienal framework:each surrounded himself with talented -advisers andd knew how to make them work tegether as a mbly;the team even while they generated competing ideas. the penoni a nt the chancellor,who is cho en by th神majority四rty前he
482 PART FIVE◆ELECTED RI万PRESENTATIVES CHAPTER 20*THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:LEADING THE NATION 483 Bureaucratic reorganization on any scale is difficulto accomplish because some bureaucrats,members of Corigress,and organlzed groups will always have a vested interest in keeping an agency as it is As a candidate in 1980, Reagan promised to eliminate the departments of Energy and Education.He tried to do so early In his presidency but was thwarted by oppositionfrom organized interests and Congress. Presidents have been more sucessful in persuading Congress to approve smaller changes in the bureaucracy Between 1939 and 1973 Congress approved 83 of 105 reorganization plans submitted by presidents.The resuts, however,were usually disappointing.#The net effect of minor reorganizations is typically the shifting of people and responsibilities from one agency to another,where the same problem of presidential ono simply resurfaces Ultimately,the problem of presidentialconro is beyond an organizational solution.The president's responsibilities are so broad that he cannot do the job without hundreds of assistants,whom it is impossible for him to supervise directly no matter how he organizes them.The modern presidency is thus a President double-edged sword.Today's president has greater responsibilities than his predecessors,and the increase in his responsibilities expands his opportunities At the same time,the range of these responsibilities isso broad that he must rely on staffers who may or may not act in his best interests.The Top asistents end modern president's recurring problem is to find some way of making sure that leoding cabinet off his aldes serve his interests above all others. secretary of stote) Harpow19 A3219 0 Other ."Or cabinet officers and egercy heads FIGURE德-3 Managing the Unfortunately,this system encourages personal rivalries.As assistants vie for Presidency:The the president's attention and for control of policy areas,their rivalry can Hub-of-the-Wheel (Circular) Form of Orzandzation ndermine the teamffort the presdforMoreover,the presdent In the hub-of-the-wheel form af rmay become so overloaded with stalf opinions that he-loses-sight of larger Sm拉a梦 issues.This criticism was often leveled at Presidenr Carter:it was said that Cerknewthedofvey policy issuebut haddifficulty establishing The presidency has beccme a much stronger office than have placed new and greater demands on the federal priorities and placing policies in the broader context that leads to effective the Founders envisioned.The Constitution grants the government,demands that the president is in some ways acttont.Carter himself came to recogntze that hts hub-of-the-wheel organization better able than Congress to meet. was overloading him with detail and he changed to a more hierarchically The responsibilities of the modern presidency.howev comespondingly doeer access to organized staff,aithough the results were not notably successful. ity has increased measurably.Underlying this change is Tfar exceed any president's personal capacities.To meet the president. the president's position as the one leader chosen by the their obligations,presidents have surrounded themselves whole nation.The public's support and expectations with large staffs of advisers,policy experts,and managers Attempts at Reorganization underlie presidential claims of broad authority. These staff members enable the president to extend Presidents have regularly experimented with the organization of the federal Nstional crises have contributed to the growth o control over the executive branch while.providing him presidential power.The public looks to the president bureaucracy in order to bring it more fully under their control.Congress has the withthenfsryfor policymaking.All recent presidents have disco vered.b e that their power to authorize the creation of new departments and agencies and to poorly suited to the decisive and continuous achon that reorganize the executive branch,but has granted the president the authority to control of staff resources is incomplete and that some emergencies require.Changing world and national condi- things that others do on their behalf actually work against propose reorganizations. tions have also presidency.These changes what they are trying to ccomplish