ABSTRACT
One common proposal for dealing with the malcoordination of bargaining is to turn much of the job of coordinating policy over to government bureaucracies. If control by elected politicians is requisite to polyarchy, and if elected politicians cannot agree on policy, then one solution is to strengthen the hierarchical controls of one more or less unified group over other leaders. The most important development is the stratification of American society brought on by industrialization, urbanism, and the bureaucratization of social organizations. Proposals for bureaucratic coördination and a “strong” President are really of the latter kind. In actual fact neither has gained much acceptance as a substitute for bargaining. The President is the main instrument of unified action in our political system; hence his prescribed hierarchical controls are enlarged in times of crisis. Hierarchical controls are significantly increased. Obstreperous minority leaders who insist on bargaining “have their heads knocked together” and speedy solutions result.
