Organizing the Presidency

(Paperback, Third Edition)

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When Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated in March 1933, the White House staff numbered fewer than 50 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 book 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.

Reviews

"Any president would benefit from reading Mr. Hess's analysis and any reader will enjoy the elegance with which it is written and the author's wide knowledge and good sense." Economist

"Stephen Hess is an eminently sensible man and in this book he has produced some eminently sensible advice to Presidents." Washington Post Book World

"Notable for its broad coverage, considerable insight, and graceful writing." Presidential Studies Quarterly

"A remarkable book." Newsweek

"This is the first book on the presidency that leaves one with the feeling that he has read a comprehensive treatment of the subject." Annals of the American Academy

"Hess, considered one of the best analysts of White House organizations..." Paul Bedard, White House Weekly, 12/3/2002

"...this new edition of Organizing the Presidency is not merely an updated version of an enduring classic. It is, instead, a vigorous argument for president-centered research of the presidency, on the grounds that it is individuals who make and unmake institutions." MaryAnne Borrelli, Connecticut College, Presidential Studies Quarterly, 9/1/2003

Author Bio

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.