ABSTRACT
In order to better understand the decision-making, policymaking process, and in order to put some flesh on the policymaking framework, this chapter analyzes the assistant secretaries' role in policy formulation and implementation. The manner in which the assistant secretary copes with the complexities of the policy process in contemporary times may serve as a microcosm of an administration's policymaking style. The brand of rational, all-encompassing strategic planning that most academics tend to discuss when they consider the generic problems of policymaking and the policy process is not what the assistant secretary is concerned with. If an assistant secretary knows who those people are, his or her ideas, plans, and programs are likely to be transmitted to the president. The assistant secretary must negotiate with outside clients and with the professional careerists, who have longer tenures and thus a different perspective about timing, and who often distrust the political appointee called the assistant secretary.
