The President as Chief Executive:
The bureaucracy
as resource and constraint
Freewrite
How do you think the federal bureaucracy
serves as a resource for presidents? How
could it constrain what presidents try to do?
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?
Don’t forget to turn this in for participation credit!
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?
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?”
“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.”
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
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.”
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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.)
New
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Century Cabinet Depts.
• 1947: Defense (from War)
• 1953: Health, Education & Welfare
– (split into HHS and Education in 1973)
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1965: Housing and Urban Development
1966: Transportation
1977: Energy
1979: Education
1989: Veterans’ Affairs
2003: Homeland Security
Appointments and Confirmations
• 12 cabinet appointments have been rejected:
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1834: Taney
1843: Cushing (three times!)
1844: Henshaw; Porter; Green
1868: Stanberry
1925: Warren (twice)
1959: Strauss
1989: John Tower
How can the president control the
bureaucracy?
• #1: Control who’s running it
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Cabinet Secretaries
The problem of Bureaucratic Capture
Jimmy Carter’s Senior Executive Service
Reagan’s Office of Personnel Management
How can the president control the
bureaucracy?
• #2: Control its budget
• 19th Century
• Bureau of the Budget
• Office of Management and Budget
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
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.”