The secular decline in presidential domestic policy making: an organizational perspective.: An article from: Presidential Studies Quarterly

This digital document is an article from Presidential Studies Quarterly, published by Center for the Study of the Presidency on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 6466 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: What has caused the secular (long-term) decline in presidential domestic policy-making activities over the past several decades? In a previously published article in this journal, Paul Light provides several interesting speculative reasons for this trend. I propose a general explanation for the secular decline in presidential domestic policy making that centers on the rising organizational size and scope of the institutional presidency. Specifically. I argue that the American presidency's greater than optimal organizational size and scope has hurt its domestic policy-making activities in absolute terms. The suboptimal organizational size and scope of the presidency has also led to a deterioration of its institutional comparative advantage in policymaking activities vis-a-vis Congress. Therefore, twenty-first century American presidents possess a strong incentive to restrict the organizational size and scope of the Executive Office of the President as a means to strive for optimal institutional performance.

Citation Details
Title: The secular decline in presidential domestic policy making: an organizational perspective.
Author: George A. Krause
Publication:Presidential Studies Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: Center for the Study of the Presidency
Volume: 34 Issue: 4 Page: 779(14)

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