The president's call: executive leadership from FDR to George Bush

Abstract

Since the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, political appointees have increased dramatically in number and infiltrated deeply into the ranks of the federal bureaucracy. Along with this development, a conventional political wisdom has taken hold that defines the typical appointee as a political hack, usually a large contributor or loyal worker for the president's party, holding a job for which he or she is not qualified. They are thought to possess limited knowledge of and commitment to government, more dedicated to their own goals and resumes than to the competent management of their agency. The difficulty of challenging this wisdom comes from what we don't know about the recent appointees themselves. Who were they? Where did they come from? Why did they choose to respond to their president's call? Judith Michaels sets out to answer these questions and examine the Senate-confirmed presidential appointees (PASs) of the Bush administration in this book. She sets them within the larger context of PASs of the modern era to analyze what Bush's choices reveal about him, his administration and the institution of political appointments itself. An interesting comparison is that between Bush's appointees and those of Ronald Reagan. Michaels combines empirical evidence with extensive personal interviews that capture the human dimension of the appointees and the career bureaucrats who worked most directly with them. Her findings shed light on trends in governing at the nation's highest levels - the centralization of power in the White House at the expense of the cabinet agencies, the stresses that come with the appointee territory, and the perpetual bureaucratic dance of competition and co-peration that appointees and careerists perform.