Description
Can any President now effectively govern and manage the domestic side of the federal government? This subtle and comprehensive book tries to answer that question for one per- son, the President himself.
Written by two Carter administration assis- tant secretaries with responsibility for social policy in HEW, Ben W. Heineman, Jr., and eco- nomic policy in Treasury, Curtis A. Hessler, Memorandum for the President takes a hard- eyed insiders' approach to problems of govern- ing in the 1980s. Unlike others who write about the presidency, the two men do not dwell on the constraints limiting White House action, but present an extended brief specifying how to run domestic affairs at a time when the nation's poli- tics are fragmented and choices in economic and social policy uncertain.
Heineman and Hessler assert that any chief executive must conduct a strategic presidency on the domestic side. He must, that is, forge an explicit four-year plan of battle that encom- passes the competing and often contradictory claims that arise from the four dimensions of executive government: substantive policy and practical politics, the structure of the executive branch and the processes of decision and imple- mentation that drive events and get things done.
Comprehending the four pieces of the strate- gic puzzle, and their relationship to one another, can create coherence for the President and his administration. Such coherence is essential if the President is not to be overwhelmed by the incessant pressure to make decisions of all shapes and sizes and if he is to work with, or best, the competing forces in and out of the po- litical system. The strategic approach is, in short, the best available method for combating presidential weakess and reviving presidential power.
A set of interrelated questions must be an- swered in a strategic context. Among them: How many important initiatives can an admin- istration advance during a single term? How does setting economic policy limit other objec- tives on the domestic agenda? How can the in- tricate interest group and subcommittee- specific politics of governing be meshed with the often contradictory and ever-present politics of renomination and reelection? What is the proper way to use Cabinet officers? Should the President appoint a Deputy President for Do- mestic Affairs? Can the war between the White House staff and the departments be stopped?
Heineman and Hessler call the strategic pres- idency a "practical ideal, neither liberal nor con- servative, neither optimistic nor pessimistic, neither active or passive. A strategic approach is simply necessary. It does not guarantee success, but without a strategic approach, presidential failure is virtually certain."
The memorandum addresses "you," the Presi- dent, in the second person, which helps draw the reader into the world of domestic affairs as the President would see it. The book will become indispensable for those who want to make in- telligent judgments about presidential perfor- mance and similarly invaluable for those at the center of executive government who must plan and manage the presidency itself. Possessing a fundamental urgency, Memorandum for the President presents a vivid and sustained analy- sis of the contemporary presidency that must be understood. The book will both define the terms of the public debate about a troubled in- stitution and improve the quality and sophis- tication of that debate.
