Leadership and Management in
the Presidency
FDR Changed everything: Now what?
Agenda
Setting
Management
of Exec. Branch
Use of
Advisors
Truman
Eisenhower
Kennedy
Harry Truman: Agenda Setting
Truman Approval Ratings
Sources: Gallup, AP, WSJ.com research. From: Wall Street Journal.com: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-presapp060531.html
FDR VPs
John Nance Garner
1933-41
Henry Wallace
1941-45
Successful
Successful
Ronald Reagan ending
welfare (1986 speech)
Bill Clinton announces
passage of welfare reform
legislation (1996)
Sucesssful
Ending “Big Government”
Clinton SOTU 1996
“The era of big
government is over.”
Not so Successful
Not so Successful
Carter’s Energy Proposals 1977
Successful or Not?
• 2010: PL 111-148: Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act
• 2012: National Federation of Independent Businesses v.
Sebelius
• 2015: King v. Burwell
Agenda Setting: Art and Science
1. Understanding trends
1. Prediction
2. Impact of events
2. Timing
3. Salesmanship
4. Can you make the agenda bipartisan?
Truman Agenda Setting
• US as a global power
• Fighting Communism
– “Truman Doctrine” speech, March 1947
– NSC-68
Division of Europe
Soviet Atomic/Nuclear Weapons
Soviet A-Bomb
August 22, 1949
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Bo
ard=EarthHistory&Number=32788&page=1&view=c
ollapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1
Soviet H-Bomb
November 22, 1953
1949: Chinese Communists win
Civil War
Mao Zedong announces the People’s Republic of China
October 1949
Two Developments
• 22nd Amendment (1951)
• Candidate-centered Politics
Dwight David Eisenhower:
Management
Why Like Ike?
Eisenhower Approval Ratings
Organizational Chart
Organization Theory
•
•
•
•
Semi-independence
Budget and Turf Battles
Organizational Culture
SOP
Coordination
1. Delegation
2. Interagency Process
3. Staff System
Delegation
John Foster Dulles
George Humphrey
Interagency Process
Cabinet
Deputy Secretary
level
committee
Departments
Departments
Under or
Assistant
Secretary level
Staff
Chief of Staff
Sherman Adams
Ike and special assistant
Robert Cutler
JFK
Republican Nominee
Debates: Nixon’s Uneasy
JFK’s Relaxed
Dual Roles of Cabinet Officers
President’s Key Adviser on an Issue
vs.
Senior Official of a Department of
Agency
Types of Presidential Advisers
1. Experts
2. Independent Political Figures
3. Friends
JFK Advisers
Robert Kennedy Douglas Dillon
Attorney General Sec. Treasury
Friend
Independent
political figure
Robert McNamara
Sec. Defense
Expert
Bush 43 Advisers
Condoleezza
Colin Powell
Nat’l Security Adv Sec. of State
Sec. of State
Friend
Independent
political figure
Donald Rumsfeld
Sec Def
Expert
Obama Advisers
Valerie Jarrett
Senior Adviser
Friend
Hillary Clinton
Sec. State
Independent
political figure
Robert Gates
Sec. Defense
Expert
Dallas 11/22/1963
LBJ Taking the Oath of Office