The Broader Executive Branch: Solving Old Problems or Creating New Ones?

Assignment update

For Monday, Edwards, ch. 11.

Followup from last time: bureaucratic responsiveness (Edwards 332-334)

• How do the interests and viewpoints of career bureaucrats differ from those of political appointees?
• How can they resist or thwart administration policies?  (Here is a big one.)

So how to fix problems with coordination, complexity, and control?

Micromanagement and Jimmy Carter. Aide James Fallows;

Carter came into office determined to set a rational plan for his time, but soon showed in practice that he was still the detail-man used to running his own warehouse, the perfectionist accustomed to thinking that to do a job right you must do it yourself. He would leave for a weekend at Camp David laden with thick briefing books, would pore over budget tables to check the arithmetic, and, during his first six months in office, would personally review all requests to use the White House tennis court.

Finding loyalists

• Cabinet
• Vetting job candidates
• The problem is that political vetting weeds out qualified candidates

Going after leakers, start at 5:40

Going after a "cabal"

Reorganization

• National Security Act of 1947 (more later) 
• Homeland Security Act of 2002

DOGE failed to cut spending

Lawsuits may end up making DOGE a net loss.

Contracting out (Edwards 525-526)