The Loyalty-Competence Tradeoff

The Loyalty-Competence Tradeoff

• Why do presidents distrust the bureaucracy?

• Why do they face challenges running it?

• Is resistance from career bureaucrats really a problem?

What qualities are important for an executive appointee to have?

• Integrity• Loyalty• Commitment to the President’s Program• Ability

– Intellectual– Political– Savvy in ways of Washington– Interpersonal– Managerial!!!

Who do presidents choose?

What characteristics seem to be most important to them?

One more presidential tool:

The “Presidential Branch” of government

White House Staff in History

• 19th Century

• 1900: 13 staffers

• 1950: – 313 White House staff– 1326 Executive Office of the President staff

Report of the Brownlow Committee

“The President needs help. His immediate staff assistance is entirely inadequate. He should be given a small number of executive assistants who would be his direct aides in dealing with the managerial agencies and administrative departments of the government…”

Report of the Brownlow Committee

“These aides would have no power to make decisions or issue instructions in their own right…They should be possessed of high competence, great physical vigor and a passion for anonymity. They should be installed in the White House itself, directly accessible to the president.”

--Reader p. 135-36

Growth of the Presidential Branch(number of staff)

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

1943 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

WH Staff Total EOP

President Bush’s White House Staff

• White House Cabinet Affairs Office

• White House Communications Office– Speechwriting– Media Affairs– Press Secretary

• Office of Counsel to the President

• First Lady’s Office• Correspondence• Intergovernmental

Affairs

• Legislative Affairs• Office of Personnel• Political Affairs• Presidential Advance• Presidential Personnel• Presidential Scheduling• Social Office • Strategic Initiatives• Travel Office• Office of the Vice

President

Executive Office of the President Agencies

• Council of Economic Advisers

• Council on Economic Quality• National Security Council• Office of Management and

Budget• Office of Administration• Office of Faith Based and

Community Initiatives• President’s Critical

Infrastructure Protection Board

• Office of Policy Development– Domestic Policy Council– National Economic Council

• Office of Nat’l AIDS Policy• Office of National Drug

Control Policy• Office of Science and

Technology Policy• Office of the US Trade

Representative

The Plum Book

Management Strategies

• Competitive

• Hierarchical

• Collegial