The Institutionalization of the American Presidency, 1924-92

Abstract

Theory: The institutionalization of the presidency involves the process by which the office as an organization attains stability and value as an end in itself. Stability denotes that the entity cannot be easily altered or eliminated, while value involves the entity acquiring a distinctive identity. More specifically, the presidency becomes institutionalized when it attains high levels of four features: autonomy (the independence of the presidency from other units), adaptability (the longevity of units in the presidency), complexity (the differentiation of subunits and staff in the office), and coherence (the manageable volume of work). Institutionalization results from an interplay between individual interests within the organization and aspects of the environment. Hypotheses: Government activity, congressional action, and individual presidents' efforts affect the degree of institutionalization across the dimensions of autonomy, adaptability, complexity, and coherence. Methods: From 1924 to 1992, several descriptive indicators of the four dimensions of institutionalization are analyzed, including expenditures, duration of organizational units, employees, and workload. A multivariate model is then estimated for the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, and White House Office using ordinary least squares. Results: The presidency emerged as an institution in the 1970s. In estimating the impact of government activity, congressional action, and individual presidents on various indicators of institutionalization, national government activity-measured by social welfare expenditures and defense expenditures-has the greatest impact. The effect of congressional activity is more limited. The indicators for differences among individual presidents have little effect.