Faith and Sex, Presidents Under Pressure: Electoral Coalitions and Strategic Presidents

Abstract

When restructuring the executive branch, presidents pursue a variety of strategies to gain political control and to meet administrative goals. Initial theories of administrative design proposed that presidents create agencies with "neutral competence" where objective expertise and specialization were expected to administer public goals. More recent theories suggest, however, that presidents began to create agencies with "responsive competence" to insure loyalty and measured effectiveness within the executive branch. In this paper, we argue that changes in the presidency and the electoral system have rendered responsive and neutral competence insufficient, and we introduce an alternative theory of administrative design called "benign competence." Benign competence assumes that presidents, while favorably disposed toward an interest, work to appease and control political narratives with reorganization strategies that include the creation of agencies that are minimally effective or benign in nature. To analyze the "benign" office, we present two case studies: creation of the Office of Women's Initiatives and Outreach during the Clinton administration; and creation of the Office of Faith- Based and Community Initiatives during the George W. Bush administration. Exploration of the motives behind creation of these offices includes analysis of the political environment shaping each president's reorganizational choices and helps us to consider the consequences of executive branch reorganization strategies.