Presidential Cabinet Making: Lessons for the Political System

Abstract

When a new president picks his cabinet, he gives observers the first set of solid clues about the kind of president he intends to be. Like the campaign rhetoric that preceded the election, a cabinet can be read in a variety of ways. And it affords only fragmentary evidence about how the president plans to run the government. But fragmentary though it is, it is hard to ignore, for unlike campaign promises, cabinet members do not disappear into thin air. Rather they take office, and, to a greater or lesser extent, actually administer the affairs of the nation. President Eisenhower's appointment of nine millionaires and a plumber gave quite a good forecast of the sort of presidency General Eisenhower wanted to have. When John Kennedy became president he struck a dominant theme of self-consciously moving beyond his own range of personal acquaintance to form a governing coalition. Likewise, his appointment of his brother as attorney general telegraphed a strong desire to keep close control of the civil rights issue. It is possible to see in Richard Nixon's cabinet appointments a mirror of his emerging view of the role of the president vis-a-vis the rest of the government (Table 1).1 After beginning with a politically diverse and reasonably visible group of