1. The President as Chief Executive:
The bureaucracy and the presidential branch of government

2. Should the bureaucracy be mostly a source of expertise that is independent of political control?
Or should it be more responsive to direction by the elected Chief Executive?

3. Today… What are the components of the executive branch?
How can the president control the executive branch?
Control who’s running it
Control its budget
Control its output
What are executive orders, and how do they help the president execute the laws?

4. Head of the Executive Branch?
One aide said to President Carter,
“I have come to the conclusion that there is only one thing you can do, unilaterally, without getting the bureaucracy involved, or having it go through 14 different levels…it’s the only power you’ve got.
And he said, “What’s that?”

5. “And I said, ‘You’ve got the power to blow up the world
“And I said, ‘You’ve got the power to blow up the world. Can’t nobody stop you…But if you want anything else to happen and you say, I want this done tomorrow, there ain’t very much you can do to get it done tomorrow. Somebody’s got to write a position paper. Somebody’s got to go through this, or you’ve got to check with Congress.”

6. Executive Power
“The Executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”
--Article II, Section I
“He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
--Article II, Section III

7. Bureaucracy in the Constitution
Article II, Section 2:
“[the President] may require the Opinion in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices…”
                                                               
“The Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Offices, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

8. 19th century Cabinet Departments
1789: State, Treasury, War
1798: Navy
1849: Interior
1870: Justice
1872: Post Office
1889: Agriculture
1903: Commerce and Labor
(split in 1913 into Commerce Dept. and Labor Dept.)

9. New 20th Century Cabinet Depts.
1947: Defense (from War)
1953: Health, Education & Welfare
(split into HHS and Education in 1973)
1965: Housing and Urban Development
1966: Transportation
1977: Energy
1979: Education
1989: Veterans’ Affairs
2003: Homeland Security

10. Appointments and Confirmations
12 cabinet appointments have been rejected:
1834: Taney
1843: Cushing (three times!)
1844: Henshaw; Porter; Green
1868: Stanberry
1925: Warren (twice)
1959: Strauss
1989: John Tower

11. How can the president control the bureaucracy?
#1: Control who’s running it
Cabinet Secretaries
The problem of Bureaucratic Capture
Jimmy Carter’s Senior Executive Service
Reagan’s Office of Personnel Management

12. How can the president control the bureaucracy?
#2: Control its budget
19th Century
Bureau of the Budget
Office of Management and Budget

13. How can the president control the bureaucracy?
#3: Control its output: regulations!
Quality of Life Review Program
Council on Wage-Price Stability
Exec. Order 12291—Regulatory Review

14. Terry Moe: The Presidential Advantage?
“Even when the interests of presidents and Congress are in conflict, which is much of the time, presidents have inherent advantages in the realm of institution building that allow them, slowly but surely, to strengthen their hand in the ongoing battle with Congress for control of the bureaucracy.”

15. The Loyalty-Competence Tradeoff

16. The Loyalty-Competence Tradeoff
Why do presidents distrust the bureaucracy?
Why do they face challenges running it?
Is resistance from career bureaucrats really a problem?

17. What qualities are important for an executive appointee to have?
Integrity
Loyalty
Commitment to the President’s Program
Ability
Intellectual
Political
Savvy in ways of Washington
Interpersonal
Managerial!!!

18. Who do presidents choose
Who do presidents choose? What characteristics seem to be most important to them?

19. One more presidential tool: The “Presidential Branch” of government

20. White House Staff in History
19th Century
1900: 13 staffers
1950:
313 White House staff
1326 Executive Office of the President staff

21. Report of the Brownlow Committee
“The President needs help. His immediate staff assistance is entirely inadequate. He should be given a small number of executive assistants who would be his direct aides in dealing with the managerial agencies and administrative departments of the government…”

22. Report of the Brownlow Committee
“These aides would have no power to make decisions or issue instructions in their own right…They should be possessed of high competence, great physical vigor and a passion for anonymity. They should be installed in the White House itself, directly accessible to the president.”

25. Growth of the Presidential Branch (number of staff)

26. President Bush’s White House Staff
Legislative Affairs
Office of Personnel
Political Affairs
Presidential Advance
Presidential Personnel
Presidential Scheduling
Social Office
Strategic Initiatives
Travel Office
Office of the Vice President
White House Cabinet Affairs Office
White House Communications Office
Speechwriting
Media Affairs
Press Secretary
Office of Counsel to the President
First Lady’s Office
Correspondence
Intergovernmental Affairs

27. Executive Office of the President Agencies
Council of Economic
Advisers
Council on Economic Quality
National Security Council
Office of Management and
Budget
Office of Administration
Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives
President’s Critical
Infrastructure Protection
Board
Office of Policy Development
Domestic Policy Council
National Economic Council
Office of Nat’l AIDS Policy
Office of National Drug
Control Policy
Office of Science and
Technology Policy
Office of the US Trade
Representative

28. The Plum Book

29. Management Strategies
Competitive
Hierarchical
Collegial