The machinery of presidential government

When Franklin Roosevelt decided his administration needed a large executive staff, he instituted dramatic and lasting changes in the federal bureaucracy and in the very nature of the presidency. Today, no president can govern without an enormous White House staff. Yet analysts have disagreed about whether the key to a president's success lies in his ability to understand and adapt to the constraints of this bureaucracy or in his ability to control and even transform it to suit his needs.

In The Institutional Presidency John Burke argues that both skills are crucial. Burke examines how the White House staff system—larger and more powerful than ever—interacts with a particular president's management ability and style. Beginning with the institutional presidency that emerged during the Roosevelt administration, this new edition includes a revised chapter on the Bush administration and a new chapter on Bill Clinton.

John P. Burke is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Vermont. He is coauthor of How Presidents Test Reality: Decisions on Vietnam, 1954 and 1965 and Advising Ike: The Memoirs of Attorney General Herbert Brownell and author of Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice and Bureaucratic Responsibility, the latter published by Johns Hopkins.