Presidential cabinets: Political dynamics and development in the United States, 1789--200

This dissertation lays out a framework to study the history of the US cabinet from a perspective inspired by the field of American Political Development. While integrating basic features of historical background, it concentrates on identifying and exploring the patterns and conditions that can explain, throughout history, important dynamics of the cabinet's makeup, role, and power. It shows that the composition, functions, and performance of the cabinets in any given presidential administration are caused by the patterned interplay of surrounding political institutions and by their competition for political authority.;Throughout time, the interactions between the president and the polity are shaped by parameters that play out as two different dynamics. The efforts of the president to control his cabinet are a recurring pattern. Yet, the nature and scope of authority over the cabinet that a president aims at and is able to achieve do vary. They are shaped by the norms and expectations of the contemporaneous political arrangements, changing over time through a secular dynamic, which captures the parties' structure of authority and organization.;My arguments are supported and illustrated by qualitative evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources and by quantitative evidence drawn from an original biographical dataset of all cabinet members from 1789 to the spring of 2006.;This dissertation shows how the marginalization of the cabinet, through time as well as over time, involves a severe disruption of the balance of powers among American institutions. It also demonstrates that, even if this marginalization is initiated by the president in order to exert more control over the polity, it does not result in increased efficiency in the conduct of executive politics and administration. Finally, this project identifies the conditions and the direction of change in the transformation of the cabinet and highlights the circumstances and significance of the political development of that institution.