Font Size: a A A

CABINET GOVERNMENT DURING THE NIXON AND CARTER ADMINISTRATIONS (POLICY-MAKING, PRESIDENTIAL DECISION-MAKING, WHITE HOUSE STAFF, EXECUTIVE

Posted on:1986-01-09Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:The Johns Hopkins UniversityCandidate:WARSHAW, SHIRLEY ANNEFull Text:PDF
GTID:1476390017461065Subject:Political science
Abstract/Summary:
Recent Presidents have struggled with the problem of finding an executive policy-making system which considered both the policy goals of the administration and the political needs of the President. In the mid-1960's Lyndon Johnson approached the issue by centralizing executive policy-making within the White House, using his White House staff to formulate the administration's major policy initiatives. Johnson expanded the Executive Office of the President staff to nearly double its previous size to accomplish this objective. This was a dramatic change from previous administrations in which the Cabinet had played the dominant role in policy-making.;During their presidential campaigns both Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter criticized the Johnson method and pledged to decentralize policy-making by relying on a Cabinet-centered policy development system. In both campaigns, the term Cabinet Government was used to describe the proposed system.;In spite of early organizational structures in the Nixon and Carter administrations which limited the role of the White House staff in policy development, Cabinet Government failed. Within one year after entering office both Presidents Nixon and Carter redesigned their policy-making systems to give their White House staffs the lead role in policy development.;The failure of Cabinet Government stemmed from the bureaucratic, constituent, and Congressional constraints on the executive policy development process. Cabinet officers were unable to develop policy proposals which consistently met presidential goals and which were sensitive to the political concerns of the White House. In addition, both Nixon and Carter found that policy coordination, as well as policy development, were hindered by the varied mandates and constituencies and widely different legal obligations within the Cabinet.;The Nixon and Carter experiments with Cabinet Government provide a framework for assessing the role of the modern White House staff in executive policy-making and its relationship to the Cabinet. This research indicates that due to political and institutional constraints on the policy development process, the Cabinet will continue to serve as the principal instrument of departmental management for the President but that the White House staff will play a major role in policy development.
Keywords/Search Tags:Policy, House staff, President, Cabinet government, Executive, Nixon and carter, Role, Administrations
Related items