This book represents an analytic approach to the whole question of assistant secretaries in the federal bureaucracy. It attempts to blend the theoretical tools of the political scientist with the practical experience of operating officials to achieve a fuller understanding of the policy process.

In recent years the enhanced role of political executives in the White House has tended to overshadow the contributions of assistant secretaries and other political executives in the Cabinet and other agencies. However, President Carter's determination to reestablish the primacy of the Cabinet has opened up the possibility that the assistant secretary's role will be reinvigorated. Assistant secretary positions, originally established for the direction of presidential programs, have evolved over time to encompass many additional roles. This is the first substantial analysis in more than a decade of the assistant secretaries' roles, relationships, and career patterns-as well as those of other presidential appointees. Based on the specific experiences of twenty-one assistant secretaries and three under secretaries who served during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, it provides invaluable insights into the background against which political executives carry out the president's programs and help formulate his policies.