Staffing Alone: Unilateral Action and the Politicization of the Executive Office of the President, 1988‐2004

Abstract

This president's power to determine the number of appointed positions in bureaucratic agencies is an important and understudied aspect of presidential unilateral power. It can have a significant impact on policy implementation. In this article, I describe the mechanics of how presidents alter the number of political appointees and explain when presidents want to politicize. I focus on how presidents balance their competing desires for agencies to share presidential preferences but also be competent at what they do. I examine presidential staffing choices with new data on appointees in the Executive Office of the President during 1988‐2004. I find some preliminary evidence that presidents add more appointees when their preferences diverge from those of an agency and that presidents are mindful of how politicization will impact agency performance. I conclude that more attention should be paid to how presidents unilaterally influence the number and depth of political appointees in the federal bureaucracy.