Presidential Leadership and Administrative Coordination: Examining the Theory of a Unified Executive

Although presidential management is often prescribed as an antidote to the fragmentation of American bureaucracy, scholars have given relatively little explicit empirical attention to the premises that sustain this theory. Indeed, the premises themselves have remained vague in important respects. This article examines the effects of presidential management as manifested in the most direct and systematic effort to oversee administrative policy making to date. Regulatory review has produced coordination of a reactive nature. It has not, however, led to the kind of top‐down planning and coordination that some authorities at least implicitly associate with a unified executive. In conjunction with other evidence, this has important implications for our understanding of the institutional motives and capabilities that link the president to the administrative process.