Organizing the Presidency - Hardcover

"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

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