On the surface the new president seems to inherit an empty house,"
Hugh Heclo, a recognized expert on American democratic
institutions, has noted. "In fact, he enters an office already
shaped and crowded by other people's desires." Empowering the White
House examines how Richard Nixon entered that crowded Oval Office
in 1969 yet managed to change it in a way that augmented the power
of the presidency and continues to influence into the twenty-first
century how his successors have governed.
Nixon's White House is perhaps best remembered for the growth in
the size of the staff, which operated under the supposed iron fist
of H. R. Haldeman. But more important than size and management
style to the character of the Nixon White House were the assigned
tasks, complexity, and dynamics of the burgeoning staff. Faced with
hostile majorities in Congress and executive branch careerists
assumed to be committed to a Democratic agenda, Nixon sought to
control his political fate by engaging more actively than earlier
presidents in public relations and the mobilization of support. At
the command and under the control of the Oval Office, the staff
carried out assignments designed to fulfill Nixon's aims.
This theoretically informed and well-researched study explains
how Nixon changed and expanded the institutionalized presidency and
how that affected the Ford and Carter administrations. Nixon
ushered in a new stage in the modern presidency by organizing and
using his increasingly complex staff in new ways that have
persisted beyond the 1970s to this day. To a greater degree than
any predecessor, Nixon systematized outreach, legal advice, and
policy formulation. His White House staffing, then, has come to be
regarded as a "standard model" that influences incoming presidents
regardless of party affiliation.
Leavening this organizational study are revealing accounts of
how the Nixon, Ford, and Carter staffs operated behind the scenes
in the West Wing. Anyone needing to know how the White House worked
during those presidencies--or how it has worked since--will find
this book invaluable.
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