Publication Date
1-1-2010
Document Type
Article
Abstract
The White House Staff provides the bureaucratic framework that makes presidential leadership possible. Even though modern presidents continue to face constraints by the constitutional structure and political reality in successfully straddling the expectations gap that continues to enlarge, the staff presents the president with his best opportunity to anticipate and exploit leadership opportunities in the best case and manage crisis and cope with challenges in the worst. In recent decades, scholarly efforts to analyze the influence and importance of the White House staff has continued apace the institution’s own evolution. In this chapter, we evaluate the state of these efforts and offer commentary about the scholarly analysis concerning the White House staff, with particular attention paid to the expansion of the staff, centralization of key activities, and the expansion of knowledge about key personnel positions. We follow these discussions with a treatment of more recent research trends and some thoughts on future research directions.
Publication Title
New Directions in the American Presidency
Publisher
pol_sci_papers
Included in
American Politics Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons