Presents a collection of essay that provide an examination of the Executive branch in American government, explaining how the Constitution created the executive branch and discusses how the executive interacts with the other two branches of government at the federal and state level.

The authors examine some of the key strategies past presidents have used to lead the departments and agencies of the Executive Branch. Although centralizing power among the White House staff became the preferred alternative during the 20th century, the authors argue that this strategy insulates the president from valuable knowledge and experience in the departments and agencies. This shortcoming, combined with the unchecked proliferation of departments and agencies, has made it difficult for the president to develop meaningful, trusting relationships with each cabinet member. A comprehensive reorganization, such as the one recommended in 2003 by the National Commission on the Public Service (also known as the Volcker Commission) cold redress some of the inherent limitations of centralizing power in the white House. Reducing the number of cabinet secretaries, for instance, could improve the chances that these secretaries will develop more effective, direct, and hands-on relationships with future presidents. Missing from the case for comprehensive reorganization, however, is a systematic study of cabinet agency performance. Before launching into large-scale reorganization, a careful inquiry should be undertaken of the successes and failures of the largest cabinet agencies: the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security.

The presidency and the agencies of the executive branch are deeply interwoven with other core institutions of American government and politics. While the framers of the Constitution granted power to the president, they likewise imbued the legislative and judicial branches of government with the powers necessary to hold the executive in check. The Executive Branch, edited byJoel D. Aberbach and Mark A. Peterson, examines the delicate and shifting balance among the three branches of government, which is constantly renegotiated as political leaders contend with the public's paradoxical sentiments-yearning for strong executive leadership yet fearing too much executive power, and welcoming the benefits of public programs yet uneasy about, and indeed often distrusting, big government. The Executive Branch, a collection of essays by some of the nation's leading political scientists and public policy scholars, examines the historical emergence and contemporary performance of the presidency and bureaucracy, as well as their respective relationships with the Congress, the courts, political parties, and American federalism. Presidential elections are defining moments for the nation's democracy-by linking citizens directly to their government, elections serve as a mechanism for exercising collective public choice. After the election, however, the work of government begins and involves elected and appointed political leaders at all levels of government, career civil servants, government contractors, interest organizations, the media, and engaged citizens. The essays in this volume delve deeply into the organizations and politics that make the executive branch such a complex and fascinating part of American government. The volume provides an assessment from the past to the present of the role and development of the presidency and executive branch agencies, including analysis of the favorable and problematic strategies, and personal attributes, that presidents have brought to the challenge of leadership. It examines the presidency and the executive agencies both separately and together as they influence-or are influenced by-other major institutions of American government and politics, with close attention to how they relate to civic participation and democracy.

In this eye-opening book, Andrew Rudalevige examines more than five hundred executive orders from the 1930s to today--as well as more than two hundred others negotiated but never issued--shedding vital new light on the multilateral process of drafting supposedly unilateral directives. He draws on a wealth of archival evidence from the Office of Management and Budget and presidential libraries as well as original interviews to show how the crafting of orders requires widespread consultation and compromise with a formidable bureaucracy. Rudalevige explains the key role of management in the presidential skill set, detailing how bureaucratic resistance can stall and even prevent actions the chief executive desires, and how presidents must bargain with the bureaucracy even when they seek to act unilaterally.

The nature of the presidency is an issue that has been debated since the drafting of the United States Constitution. The Federalists felt a strong executive was the backbone and prime mover of a strong government. On the other side, the Anti-Federalists felt the presidency represented monarchical tendencies and could potentially subvert republican government. How does executive leadership fit in with a limited government with enumerated powers? Does the Constitution require a containment of executive power, even during times of crisis, or do times of crisis warrant an abandonment of a strict legalistic reading of the document? In Presidential Leadership, Pendleton Herring contends that an energetic president is not a threat to existing democratic government "rightly understood." He does not advance an entirely Wilsonian response to the Founders on presidential leadership in which the federal government is seen as a pyramid with the president at its apex, and the British parliamentary system is seen as the model. Nor does he reject the Founders' constitutional design. Rather, Herring's conception of presidential leadership requires an executive who has a mastery of administration. The existing system is sufficiently plastic to be able to cope with any national crisis--but the president must be able to work within that system in the most efficient manner possible. Sidney Pearson, in his comprehensive new introduction to this classic work, shows how Herring merges the views of the Founding Fathers with the Liberal-Progressives. He explains that Herring's model of a strong president is one who knows how to grasp opportunities as they arise, and then use them for the common good. Presidential Leadership is a pioneering study of the American presidency that established the standard for presidential scholarship.

An accessible and comprehensive main text for courses on the presidency, this text argues that to be a successful presidential leader, one must effectively manage the enormous institutional and personal resources - or the "keys to power." Using the "keys to power" theme, Warshaw argues that the presidency is far more powerful today than in past generations. The book offers the most coverage in the market on the structures that provide the president with such power. As a result, there are discrete chapters dedicated to the vice president, the president's cabinet, the White House staff, and the executive office of the President. Standard topics such as "the president and the economy," are still covered but are integrated throughout the chapters.