Czars in the White House: The Rise of Policy Czars as Presidential Management Tools

by Justin S. Vaughn, Jose D. Villalobos

Overview

When Barack Obama entered the White House, he followed a long-standing precedent for the development and implementation of major policies by appointing administrators—so-called policy czars—charged with directing the response to the nation’s most pressing crises. Demonstrating that the creation of policy czars is a strategy for combating partisan polarization and navigating the federal government’s complexity, Vaughn and Villalobos offer a sober, empirical analysis of what precisely constitutes a czar and what role they have played in the modern presidency.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472036943
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	10/02/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Justin S. Vaughn is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. 
José D. Villalobos is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 What Is a Czar? 9

Chapter 2 Why Czars? A Theoretical Explanation for the Rise of Presidential Policy Czars 21

Chapter 3 The Gradual Institutionalization of America's Energy Policy: The Case of the Energy Czar 41

Chapter 4 Commanding the War on Drugs: The Drug Czar and the Office of National Drug Control Policy 61

Chapter 5 Founding and Fumbling the AIDS Czar: Bill Clinton and the Office of National AIDS Policy 99

Chapter 6 Coordination in a Post-9/11 World: George W. Bush's Czars and the War on Terror 123

Chapter 7 War of the Czars: The Battle over Barack Obama's White House Staff 147

Conclusion 165

Notes 175

Bibliography 201

Index 225

Editorial Reviews

Justin Vaughn and José Villalobos have given us the first effort at a comprehensive appraisal of the work these czars have done. This book is an excellent effort to fill a major gap in the scholarship of both the presidency and public policy.”
—Congress & the Presidency
 

“. . . the first in-depth study of this growing bureaucratic phenomenon. This work is essential reading for all students of the American presidency and fills a large gap in the study of the executive branch and public administration . . . Essential.”
—Choice Reviews
 

“In this well-written and analytically sophisticated book, Justin Vaughn and José Villalobos explain the widely discussed, but little understood, role of administrative czars in the presidency. They document how recent presidents have made both wise and unwise use of policy czars to coordinate major priorities. In drawing lessons from this history, they argue that czars, or something very much like them, are essential tools that presidents must occasionally use to lead the fragmented executive branch. If you want to understand how presidents can get their policies implemented effectively, this book provides a valuable guide.”
—James P. Pfiffner, George Mason University
 

From the Publisher