A government of strangers : executive politics in Washington / Hugh Heclo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heclo, Hugh.

Contributor:

Brookings Institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Government executives--United States.

Government executives.

United States.

Patronage, Political--United States.

Patronage, Political.

Physical Description:

xvi, 272 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington : Brookings Institution, [1977]

Summary:

How do political appointees try to gain control of the Washington bureaucracy? How do high-ranking career bureaucrats try to ensure administrative continuity? The answers are sought in this analysis of the relations between appointees and bureaucrats that uses the participants' own words to describe the imperatives they face and the strategies they adopt.

Shifting attention away from the well-publicized actions of the President, Hugh Heclo reveals the little-known everyday problems of executive leadership faced by hundreds of appointees throughout the executive branch. But he also makes clear why bureaucrats must deal cautiously with political appointees and with a civil service system that offers few protections for broad-based careers of professional public service.

The author contends that even as political leadership has become increasingly bureaucratized, the bureaucracy has become more politicized. Political executives--usually ill-prepared to deal effectively with the bureaucracy--often fail to recognize that the real power of the bureaucracy is not its capacity for disobedience or sabotage but its power to withhold services. Statecraft for political executives consists of getting the changes they want without losing the bureaucratic services they need.

Heclo argues further that political executives, government careerists, and the public as well are poorly served by present arrangements for top-level government personnel. In his view, the deficiencies in executive politics will grow worse in the future. Thus he proposes changes that would institute more competent management of presidential appointments, reorganize the administration of the civil service personnel system, and create a new Federal Service of public managers.

Contents:

1. People in Government 1

What Is at Stake 3

The Search for Political Leadership 8

The Idea of Civil Service: A Third Force? 19

2. Setting: The Executive Melange 34

Who's Who? 36

Trends 55

Results 64

3. Political Executives: A Government of Strangers 84

The Political Executive System 84

The Selection Process 88

Characteristics of Political Executives 100

A Summary and Look Forward 109

4. Bureaucrats: People in the Machine 113

The Higher Career System 114

Job Protection 133

Bureaucratic Dispositions 142

5. Working Relations: The Preliminaries 154

Self-Help: The Starting Point 156

Self-Help Is Not Enough 170

Whom Do You Trust? 181

6. Working Relations: The Main Event 191

Using Strategic Resources 194

Using People 213

Mutual Support and Its Limits 220

7. Doing Better: Policies for Governing Policymakers 235

The Case for Reform 236

The Shape of Reform 243

A Third Force: The Federal Service 249

Costs and Prospects 261

Approximate Number of Noncareer and Career Positions, U.S. Government, by Rank, 1975-76

Postwar Growth of U.S. Congressional Staffs

Previous Government Experience of Incumbent Assistant Secretaries for Administration, Selected Years, 1954-74

Government Experience of Bureau of the Budget/Office of Management and Budget Executive Personnel, 1953, 1960, and 1974

Full-Time Political Appointments in the Executive Branch, June 1976

Political Executives' Years of Experience in the Federal Government, 1970

Tenure of Political Executives, 1960-72

How Career Executive Positions Have Been Filled before and after 1967 Reforms

Political and Career Executive Positions in the Department of Commerce and in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, June 10, 1974

Management Organization of the Department of the Interior, 1924 and 1976

Index of the Growth of Mid-Level Executive Positions and Federal Civilian Employment, 1961-74

Procedures for Hiring a Career Executive.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0815735367.

0815735359

OCLC:

2983376