President's Cabinet Research Articles

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Health.

Preparation, connection go a long way toward managing unexpected challenges

Looking back on his 28‐year career in higher education, James Davidson “Dusty” Porter, Ph.D., recalls the unexpected challenges he encountered while working at a private, tuition‐dependent college during the 2008 recession. “I remember very clearly the challenge of trying to determine, with the president's Cabinet, how we were going to stay afloat without eliminating jobs,” he said. “I have a memory of thinking ‘No one ever shared in my graduate preparation program how much time I would be spending on budgets and understanding fiscal operations.’”

Two decades of semi-presidentialism: issues of intra-executive conflict in Central and Eastern Europe 1991–2011

Semi-presidentialism has become an increasingly popular form of government worldwide and has emerged as the most common regime type in Central and Eastern Europe and among the post-Soviet states. An often identified – although rarely empirically addressed – peril of semi-presidentialism is the risk of intra-executive struggles between the president and the prime minister. This study analyses the trend and issues of intra-executive conflicts in eight semi-presidential (premier–presidential and president–parliamentary) countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. By utilising expert survey data as well as indicators derived from documentary and literature analysis, 76 instances of intra-executive (president–cabinet) pairs between 1991 and 2011 are examined. The results show that intra-executive conflict has been a frequently occurring phenomenon under both types of semi-presidentialism, and one that has persisted at similar levels throughout the post-communist era. In addition, we unexpectedly find that the character of conflicts have only slightly changed from being predominantly power struggles over formal rules and competences to being more issue-specific and policy-oriented.

Tips to Be a Great Leader in Student Affairs

Tips to Be a Great Leader in Student Affairs

The Contemporary Presidency: Gender Desegregation and Gender Integration in the President's Cabinet, 1933-2010

To study women and men in the U.S. cabinet is to study the intersection of descriptive and substantive representation. Consider, for example, the significance of gender to the political credibility of two well-known cabinet secretaries, Frances Perkins and Colin Powell. As the labor secretary in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, Frances Perkins advanced reforms that women activists had sought for decades. Countless policy battles in municipal and state government had strengthened the ties between her gender identity and her political priorities. Gender and politics were also tightly intertwined for Colin Powell, secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration. As a career military officer with extensive experience in military-civilian dialogues, Powell brought a distinctive credibility to his diplomatic engagements. For Powell and for Perkins, gender provided access to career opportunities and organizational networks, shaping their advocacy and leadership. These examples begin to reveal the importance of gender for both women and men secretaries, demonstrating the need to consider its impact on careers and decisions. Are there systematic differences among the women and men appointed to the cabinet in the modern presidency? What is the significance of these differences for the modern presidency? Answering these questions requires comparing the women and the men secretaries, drawing on past classification schemas developed and tested by political scientists. As individuals, cabinet members can be categorized as initial or midterm appointees, as Washington insiders or outsiders, and as specialists in their departments' policies, liaisons to their departments' constituents, or generalists chosen for their loyalty to the president (see Best 1981; Borrelli 2002; King and Riddlesperger 1984; Polsby 1978). To see the aggregate effect of the individual similarities and differences, we consider the extent to which a president's cabinet has undergone either gender desegregation or gender integration. In simple terms, when women enter a formerly all-male cabinet, but then are marginalized within it, the cabinet is gender desegregated. As women and men secretaries acquire similar political resources and opportunities to exercise power, the cabinet undergoes gender integration. It is the task of this article to define these terms precisely, applying them to the cabinets of the modern presidency. Particular attention is given to the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama cabinets. By the time of the Clinton presidency, there was a widespread expectation that women would be named to the cabinet--an expectation encouraged by Clinton's campaign promises of an administration that looks like America, by the lobbying efforts of the Coalition for Women's Appointments, and by extensive media coverage. How did this affect the cabinet ? Did it evidence gender integration? George W. Bush made no promises similar to Clinton's, and he encountered far less pressure to diversify his cabinet appointments. Did the cabinet changes begun in the Clinton administration continue in the Bush administration? Barack Obama was the first civil rights attorney to be president. How did his initial cabinet secretaries compare to those of Clinton and Bush? Did Obama provide a gender-desegregated or a gender-integrated cabinet ? These questions are the focus of this study of gender and change in the president's cabinet. Women, Men, and the President's Cabinet Cabinet secretaries advance the president's agenda through their advocacy in Congress, through leadership in their departments, and through their relationships with departmental issue networks. Yet this outreach also strains the secretaries' allegiance to the president, as members of Congress advance their own priorities through authorizations and appropriations, departmental careerists mobilize to protect their programs, and constituencies seek policies in their self-interest. …

Education for Everyday People: Obstacles and Opportunities Facing the Obama Administration

In this essay, Gloria Ladson-Billings describes her reaction to Barack Obama's election and her desire to share these historic moments with folks she considers "everyday people." She then looks to the future of education in the United States and highlights obstacles to the Obama administration's meaningful engagement with education issues. Ladson-Billings uses the frame of interest convergence to suggest that this new administration has the opportunity to engage in pragmatic politics and to put forward polices that simultaneously promote both the interests of public school students—particularly those from disenfranchised communities—and national interests. She illustrates this argument through a chronicle imagining a future discussion among the president's cabinet. Finally, she closes by describing the power of the president's inauguration for uniting diverse communities and broadening the definition of everyday people.

Federated States of Micronesia

Federated States of Micronesia John R. Haglelgam (bio) The beginning of this review period was particularly busy. The new national administration led by President Emanuel Mori had just been inaugurated and the political watchers were focusing on nominations for department heads. The first batch of nominees the president submitted included his uncle for secretary of resources and development, and his brother-in-law for FSM ambassador to the United States. The respective congressional committees favorably recommended the nominations for approval. However, the whole congress rejected both. Neither the reports of the jurisdictional committees nor the floor debates addressed the issue of nepotism, which was foremost in everyone's mind. Regardless, the political pundits knew that the two nominations were rejected because the nominees are close relatives of the president, who is from Chuuk State. In this particular case, the FSM public can heave a sigh of relief that the built-in checks and balances at the national level worked. The president nominated Makato Robert from Chuuk as his attorney general. At the time of his nomination, Robert was still facing charges of unethical practices in the FSM Supreme Court. In its report, the Judiciary and Governmental Operation Committee criticized the court for not acting promptly on the nominee's application for reinstatement to the FSM bar, but ignored the fact that the nominee still cannot appear before the FSM Supreme Court. Regardless of the deficiency in Robert's credentials, the FSM Congress took the bizarre action of approving his nomination. It is not clear how the new attorney general will represent the nation before the FSM Supreme Court, and how much damage this action has done to the reputation, image, and legitimacy of the national government. At the time of this writing, the Mori administration has filled almost all the major overseas posts with new ambassadors. Yosiwo George, the former governor and chief justice of Kosrae and most recently the manager of MiCare, the national government health insurance program, is the new FSM ambassador to the United States. John Fritz, a Japanese-educated Chuukese and longtime staff member of the embassy in Tokyo, has taken over from Kasio Mida as the ambassador to Japan. The former counsel general in Guam, Samson Pretrick, has become the new ambassador to Fiji. Masao Nakayama remains the head of the FSM Permanent Mission at the United Nations. Beijing is the only unfilled overseas post, but Carl Apis, a Pohnpeian, has been appointed as deputy chief of mission there. The consul general positions in Guam and [End Page 114] Honolulu are filled respectively by Gersen Jackson of Kosrae and Akilino Susaia of Pohnpei. Jackson is a former lieutenant governor of Kosrae, and Susaia served as the secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs under former President Joseph Ursemal. It is interesting to note that Masao Nakayama is the only remaining member of the old FSM diplomatic corp. Yosiwo George served a couple of years as head of the FSM mission at the United Nations in New York. Pretrick and Fritz are new in their posts but they are experienced diplomats. The two consul generals are new to diplomacy, but they are experienced administrators. The FSM president's cabinet consists almost entirely of new members. Finley Perman, a former official of the Pohnpei state government, now heads the Department of Finance and Administration; Lorin Robert, the former deputy secretary of foreign affairs, became the head of that department. Vita Skilling, a physician at the Kosrae state hospital, became the secretary of the new Department of Health and Social Affairs. The head of the newly renamed Department of Resources and Development is Peter Christian, the former Speaker of the national congress. Casiano Shoniber, the former Pohnpei state director of education, took over the new Department of Education. Francis Itimai, the former director of planning and budget in Yap, became secretary of transportation, communication, and infrastructure; the former head of that department, Andrew Yatilmal, now heads the Office of Environment and Emergency Management. Dr Rufino Mauricio remains the director of the newly expanded Office of National Archives, Culture, and Historic Preservation. Fabian Nimea, former manager of the Pohnpei Branch of the Bank of the FSM, becomes the director...

Contestable constitutions: Ambiguity, conflict, and change in East Central European dual executive systems

This article investigates how ambiguous constitutional design affected president–cabinet relations and constitutional change in post-communist Poland and Hungary. Constitutional provisions related to the prerogatives of presidents and governments were frequently subject to political conflict during the 1990s. The power struggle in the two cases developed and consolidated along two distinct pathways. In Poland, failed attempts to modify the constitution initially stirred up and extended intra-executive conflicts. With the adoption of a new constitution in 1997 the struggle over power between president and council of ministers was finally settled. In Hungary constitutional court rulings were instrumental in the settlement of president–cabinet conflicts.

STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT ASSESSMENT AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY CONSERVATION IN THE KOREAN HIGH-SPEED RAILWAY PROJECT

Biological diversity (biodiversity) is an essential issue in conservation and environmental impact assessment (EIA). Though Korea is relatively small, the country harbours over 29,800 species, making biodiversity and ecosystem conservation a central issue when an EIA is undertaken during development site selection. Indeed, an unfavourable biodiversity evaluation can halt a proposed or in-progress development, creating a societal conflict between conservationists and developers. To solve this, the Strategic Environment Assessment (SEA) legislation was created in Korea to provide a systematic instrument for improving decision-making through early-stage environmental assessment. The SEA legislation was recently passed by the President's cabinet and is poised for implementation during 2005. Adoption of the SEA will facilitate better assessments of biodiversity during the early stages of the developmental process, preventing late-stage interruptions such as those seen in the Korean High-speed Railway Project (KHRP), which was recently halted due to poor biodiversity conservation around the development site. The original EIA of the KHRP did not appropriately address the biodiversity issues because most of the developmental plan had been set in place prior to evaluation of biodiversity in the affected areas. The KHRP caused leakage of mountain groundwater such that high elevation wetlands marked as ecosystem conservation areas by the Ministry of Environment became dry and lost their endemic amphibian species. Upon learning this, several national NGOs filed court cases on behalf of the Korean clawed salamander (Onachodaytylus fisheri), halting the project for some time. Thus, the lack of biodiversity consideration at the earliest stages of the KHRP created a social conflict. This paper examines how the implementation of an SEA during the KHRP would have minimised the social conflicts between biodiversity conservation and developmental processes.

The President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and RepresentationThe President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and Representation. By Mary Anne Borrelli. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. Pp. 277. $59.95 cloth, $26.50 paper)

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and Representation The President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and Representation. By Mary Anne Borrelli. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002. Pp. 277. $59.95 cloth, $26.50 paper)Alana S. JeydelAlana S. Jeydel1Oregon State University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Politics Volume 66, Number 3August 2004 Sponsored by the Southern Political Science Association Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3816.2004.286_9.x Views: 18Total views on this site Copyright © 2004, Southern Political Science AssociationPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and Representation

The President's Cabinet: Gender, Power, and Representation

Entrepreneurial Bureaucrats

In the most recent installment of his biography about Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Morris pays considerable attention to the social life of Washington to explain how political decisions were made. 1 For example, the president's famous Tennis cabinet, where Roosevelt met with important government players to hammer out policy, politics, and electoral strategy was as important an arena as formal Cabinet meetings or the halls of Capitol Hill. Morris points out how Roosevelt successfully worked with individuals such as a Gifford Pinchot, one of the most favored members of the Tennis cabinet, not only because they shared political ideas but because they were educated at certain types of institutions, they were well traveled in Europe, and they were closely connected to prominent families. Morris's account raises the question of how students of American political history could integrate these types of informal relationships into their accounts of large-scale institutions and policy.

The president's cabinet: gender, power, and representation

Linking Presidency Research and Gender Studies. CABINET NOMINATIONS: POWER AND PROCESS. The President's Nomination Power. Presidential Decisionmaking: Selecting the Secretaries-Designate. SCRUTINIZING THE SECRETARIES-DESIGNATE: CAREER PATTERNS AND IMPLICATIONS. The Secretaries-Designate. The Women's Careers. Media Coverage. CABINET CONFIRMATIONS: IDEOLOGY AND EVALUATION. Legislative-Executive Relations in Cabinet Building. The Confirmation Hearing and Floor Action. CONCLUSION. Understanding Representation.

A Corner of the Nation's Attic

sion of knowledge among men, he fostered a dilemma. What manner of institution? Because people had such different designs on this substantial sum, the problem was debated for more than a decade. Finally, in 1846, Congress passed a bill providing for a laboratory, a library, and a repository for objects of art and of foreign and curious research, all to be housed in a building on the Mall that emulated a twelfth-century Norman castle and presided over by a the title given to mem bers of the president's cabinet. As it turned out, the first secretary, Joseph Henry, was partial to scien tific research and less than thrilled with the idea of establishing a public museum. But in 1858 the Patent Office managed to shift custody of its Cabinet of Curiosities to Henry. Even though Congress appro priated $3,650 for setting up the United States National Museum in part of the Castle, he was still not pleased. Almost to the end of his days he sought to divest the museum, perceiving that it would ultimately define the iden tity of the Smithsonian more so than its scientific work, and, worse, expose it to the dangers of direct political influence. With little or no help from Henry, the Smithsonian's collection of tech nological apparatus kept growing in the 1860s and '70s, mostly instruments used in getting a measure of the land, along with Native American devices that explorers like John Wesley Powell picked up in the course of their field work. Then, in 1876, the Smithsonian was designated the final repository for artifacts exhibited by government agencies at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. In addition, many foreign exhibitors left behind what they had brought to the United States, and eventually twenty or thirty (or a hun dred?accounts vary widely) boxcars full of miscellaneous stuff were spot ted on a railroad siding near Washington's Tiber Creek, designated for the National Museum.

Biographical dictionary of the United States secretaries of the Treasury, 1789-1995

Describing the men who have led the U.S. Treasury since its creation in 1789, this book profiles those who have held the cabinet position of Secretary of the Treasury from Alexander Hamilton to Robert Rubin. Each profile provides the reader with an understanding of the man, the problems he faced, and the contributions he made. While focusing on the economic policy problems of an era and the solutions the secretary offered, each profile also includes a vignette illustrating the secretary's personality and background. Some represent backgrounds of money and power, others backgrounds of simplicity and anonymity. Some came to the office with greater stature than when they left, while others made a significant mark on our nation's financial history. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, besides collecting and dispersing the public revenue, made the Treasury a prime agency for promoting the country's economic development and fiscal soundness. Since the Great Depression, the Treasury's regulatory functions have been articulated and elaborated. Working with the President's cabinet and with maximum statistical data, the secretaries have sought to analyze the economic outlook and to coordinate official actions, including policies to maintain a strong and stable U.S. dollar. The essays in this book, written by 24 authorities, illustrate how the Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies with general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The biographies illustrate continuing themes of fiscal management as our nation evolved over 200 stormy years of history. They also provide an intimate look at 69 individual secretaries, with stories and facts about their leadership, ideas, style, and administrative prowess, together with their personality and family lives.

Study examines the issue of competencies for workplace diversity practitioners

Employment Relations TodayVolume 22, Issue 1 p. 47-57 Feature Study examines the issue of competencies for workplace diversity practitioners Toni A. Gregory, Toni A. Gregory Toni A. Gregory is associate director of the Division of Research at the American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD) at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Gregory is an organizational psychologist specializing in the study of culture, organizational complexity, and transformation. She was a senior administrator at the University of Cincinnati and Spelman College where she was a member of the president's cabinet and taught in the areas of educational psychology, organizational psychology, and multiculturalism.Search for more papers by this authorCatherine A. Ouellette, Catherine A. Ouellette Catherine A. Ouellette is a research associate with the American Institute for Managing Diversity. She has over ten years of experience researching, teaching, and training on diversity issues in corporate, nonprofit, and educational organizations.Search for more papers by this author Toni A. Gregory, Toni A. Gregory Toni A. Gregory is associate director of the Division of Research at the American Institute for Managing Diversity (AIMD) at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Ms. Gregory is an organizational psychologist specializing in the study of culture, organizational complexity, and transformation. She was a senior administrator at the University of Cincinnati and Spelman College where she was a member of the president's cabinet and taught in the areas of educational psychology, organizational psychology, and multiculturalism.Search for more papers by this authorCatherine A. Ouellette, Catherine A. Ouellette Catherine A. Ouellette is a research associate with the American Institute for Managing Diversity. She has over ten years of experience researching, teaching, and training on diversity issues in corporate, nonprofit, and educational organizations.Search for more papers by this author First published: Spring 1995 https://doi.org/10.1002/ert.3910220108Citations: 2 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume22, Issue1Spring 1995Pages 47-57 RelatedInformation

Predictors of mental health in women of a politically unstable country, the Philippines.

In a study conducted in Manila, the Philippines, the relationships among the (a) negative appraisal of and coping with political instability, (b) sociodemographic characteristics, (c) morale, and (d) mood of Filipino women (N = 200) were investigated. Findings were as follows: The political instability in the Philippines had a mild negative impact on the women's lives. The women reported mild depression and moderate morale. Their primary coping style was problem-focused coping. A positive relationship was found among annual individual income, educational achievement, and morale. A negative relationship was found among annual individual income, educational achievement, and depression. Negative relationships were also found between negative appraisals of news of brutal murders and morale and between frequent changes in the President's cabinet and morale. A positive relationship was found between affect-focused coping and depression, whereas problem-focused coping and depression were negatively related. No relationship was found between coping style and morale. The findings are discussed from the perspectives of Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) coping theory and Filipino culture. Guidelines for health care delivery are specified.

Bargaining and command by heads of U.S. government departments

The 13 department of heads of the president's cabinet are among the most important and powerful people in the United States government. Laws, presidemtial authority, and administrative theory say that they should command. In fact, they spend much of their time bargaining. They dicker with the president, the White House staff, their own assistant secretaries, their civil service subordinates, and thier clientele. These powerful men and women bargain for the same reasons that they command: to acquire information, to mobilize resources, to implement their programs, and to advance their own positions. Besides standard published sources, the author draws on his personal experience as a presidential appointee in the Carter Administration. On certain points, he compares the American system to the British government.

Salmon P. Chase Critiques First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln

SALMON P. CHASE CRITIQUES FIRST READING OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN Thomas F. Schwartz The Illinois State Historical Library recently purchased a large collection of nineteenth-century manuscripts relating to Abraham Lincoln's associates. Among the documents were several letters written by members of Lincoln's cabinet addressed to Derby and Miller Publishing Company. The letters endorsed Alexander H. Ritchie's engraving of Francis Bicknell Carpenter's painting First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln.1 Save for Salmon P. Chase's protean but entertaining letter of May 2, 1866, written directly to Carpenter, the letters reveal little that is startling. Taken as a whole, however, they help clarify when the Ritchie print was released for mass distribution and contrast sharply with Chase's response to Carpenter. The story of Carpenter's famous painting is well known.2 From February until July 1864 Carpenter set up shop in the White House as he went about sketching and painting Lincoln and his cabinet. The first viewing took place at the White House on July 22, 1864, although this public showing was largely limited to the president's family, cabinet members, and other interested parties. Carpenter exhibited the painting only for a short period after the July 1864 debut because he was unsatisfied with the result. Nevertheless, he signed a contract with Derby and ' Several thousand documents were purchased at the sale of the King V. Hostick Collection , Leslie Hindman Galleries on Saturday, Apr. 20, 1985, Chicago, Illinois. Four letters which directly comment on the Ritchie print areGideon Welles to F. B. Carpenter, Ma)' 15 and Sept. 24, 1866, F. W. Seward to Derby and Miller, May 19, 1866, and Salmon P. Chase to F. B. Carpenter, May 2, 1866. All are housed at the Illinois State Historical Library, Manuscripts Division. 2 Carpenter's own account is contained in Six Months at the White Housewith Abraham Lincoln: The Story of a Picture (London: Sampson Low, Son & Marston, 1866). Another account is found in Charles E. Fairman, Art andArtists of the Capitol of the United States of America (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1927), 305-9. Civil War History, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1, © 1987 by The Kent State University Press SALMON P. CHASE85 Miller, allowing them to make and distribute an engraving based upon his painting.3 Once the contract was finalized, subscription sheets were printed and distributed around the country. Derby and Miller offered the print at a variety of prices, ranging from fifty dollars for an artist's proof copy to ten dollars for a common print.4 President Lincoln was the first to subscribe for an artist's proof copy, followed by his cabinet members who also purchased artist's proof copies. Previous authorities have indicated that the print was issued sometime after the president and his cabinet subscribed, placing public sales in late 1864 or early 1865.5 The actual public distribution of the print, however, clearly occurred after Lincoln 's assassination, probably in May 1866. The revised estimate is based upon the assumption that Lincoln's widow and his cabinet surely would have received the first prints.6 To ensure better public sales, Derby and Miller solicited statements from Lincoln's cabinet members, as well as several other Lincoln associates . Excerpts were printed in both a promotional brochure and advertisements that appeared on the end pages in later editions of Carpenter's book, Six Months at the White House. The advertisements contain portions of a letter by Gideon Welles, Lincoln's secretary of the navy, while the letter of Frederick W. Seward—son of Lincoln's secretary of state, William H. Seward—was printed in its entirety. Welles praised the work as "well done," adding that "some feeling of sadness" came over him when he gazed at the portrait of "the great and good man [Lincoln] . . . whom we all loved." Frederick W. Seward claimed "the fidelity of its portraits enhances the historical interest derived from the subject of the picture." Distributing the picture as an engraving permitted it, as Seward exclaimed, "to be seen and appreciated everywhere throughout the world."7 Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's troublesome secretary of the 3 See Mark...

An executive cabinet

i n British terms, the definition of cabinet function is simple: it is the government. A decision-making body in which binding votes are taken, the British cabinet collectively embodies the political will of Britain's parliamentary system. It acts, subject to parliamentary votes of confidence, as the final repository of executive authority. The U.S. cabinet possesses no such authority. Executive responsibility in the American system rests exclusively with the president. The cabinet has no formal authority: it does not collectively make decisions, nor does it normally advise on questions of importance. While there exists language establishing "Executive Departments and Heads of Departments" whose "opinion in writing" would be an important source of advice to the president, the cabinet as such has no constitutional mandate. Its institutional legitimacy derives solely from custom and function. It was George Washington who, acting upon what he saw as "the impossibility that one man should be able to perform all the great business of state," began calling his executive secretaries and the attorney general into collective collaboration on a regular basis. To him it was clear that the chief executive alone could neither dig deeply enough into the vast range of presidential problems to be assured that all the dimensions of any given issue were covered, nor see to it that his decisions and overall priorities were faithfully carried out at all levels of government. Only by giving responsibility to specialists whose expertise and administrative authority spread over the entire range of issues and having them meet regularly could he begin to overcome this institutional predicament. In order for the administration of government to reflect coherent goals and strategies, therefore, a number of serious people had to be involved in the policy formation process. For Washington, it was the heads of the executive departments who collectively best met these requirements. Copied by his successors, Washington's organizational initiative (dubbed "the Cabinet" by James Madison) was quickly accepted as a permanent feature of the executive office. This institutionalization was a clear signal that the cabinet was indeed serving an important function in the presidential decision-making and coordination process, giving the president both a relatively complete display of the issues before him and an opportunity to extend his control throughout the executive bureaucracy. Its exact status, however, continued to change as presidents sought to establish clearer lines of authority within their administrations. By the mid-nineteenth century a new, more permanent relationship between the president and his cabinet had emerged--a relationship epitomized by President Lincoln's often-repeated quip: "Seven noes, one aye: ]'he ayes have it." According to Richard Fenno in The President's Cabinet, the cabinet had come to live "in a state of institutional dependency to promote the effective exercise of the president's authority and to help implement his ultimate responsibilities.'" Today the cabinet's mandate seems more compelling than ever. The extraordinary complexity and range of issues on the presidential agenda has compounded the chief executive's inherent organizational difficulties, limiting still further his ability to carry out his central decision-making and coordination responsibilities. Much more than in Washington's day, the contemporary president is forced to rely upon others to both advise him and carry out his policies. Who should these "others" be'? With close ties to interest groups, Congress, and their own bureaucracies, the men and women who head the departments of the executive branch still collectively appear the best suited to fulfill these functions. It is therefore not surprising that each newly elected president is attracted to the traditional cabinet idea. When faced with the necessity of organizing his office for central decision-making and coordination, it seems an entirely logical approach; the cabinet should make a major contribution to the effectiveness of any administration. But can it? Is the cabinet in its present form well suited to these tasks? Can it, as a collegial body, be a successful part of