Organizing the Presidency

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, the White House staff numbered fewer than fifty people. In the ensuing years, as the United States became a world power and both the foreign and domestic duties of the president grew more complex, the White House staff has increased twentyfold. This books asks how best to manage a presidency that itself has become a bureaucracy.

In the third edition of Organizing the Presidency, Stephen Hess, with the assistance of James P. Pfiffner, surveys presidential organizations from Roosevelt's to George W. Bush's, examining the changing responsibilities of the executive branch jobs and their relationships with one another, Capitol Hill, and the permanent government. He also describes the kinds of people who have filled these positions and the intentions of the presidents who appointed them.

In the third edition of Organizing the Presidency, Stephen Hess, with the assistance of James P. Pfiffner, surveys presidential organizations from Roosevelt's to George W. Bush's, examining the changing responsibilities of the executive branch jobs and their relationships with one another, Capitol Hill, and the permanent government. He also describes the kinds of people who have filled these positions and the intentions of the presidents who appointed them.

Booknews

Hess asserts that an incoming White House staff is at maximum risk of making flawed decisions that can haunt an entire presidency. Includes historical analyses of the Ford, Carter, and Reagan administrations. No bibliography. Paper ed. $10.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Stephen Hess is senior fellow emeritus in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and Distinguished Research Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He has been engaged in presidential transitions since he was a young speechwriter in the EisenhowerWhite House. He returned to the White House with President Richard Nixon, helped Jimmy Carter reorganize the Executive Office and advised the presidential transition teams of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and GeorgeW. Bush. His numerous books include Through Their Eyes: Foreign Correspondents in the United States (Brookings, 2005). James P. Pfiffner is professor of public policy at George Mason University. He is the author or editor of ten books on the presidency and American government, including The Character Factor: How We Judge America's Presidents (Texas A& M University Press, 2004) and The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running, second edition (University Press of Kansas, 1996). Pfiffner is an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration and taught previously at the University of California, Riverside, and California State University, Fullerton. A veteran of the 25th Infantry Division (1/8 Artillery), he received the Army Commendation of Medal for Valor in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970.