ABSTRACT
Can presidents influence the federal bureaucracy through political tools of control? Despite their constitutional and statutory authority over the federal bureaucracy, scholars were initially skeptical of the president's ability to influence the decisions of policy experts. With a normative insight that presidents should look to control the bureaucracy to make it democratic, presidents who chose to engage actively in administrative strategies to affect policy implementation, and a theory to explain the means by which presidents could control the bureaucracy, examination of presidents since Nixon show much evidence of presidential control. Typically, presidents use their budgetary authority, appointment power, and leadership to shape agency behavior. Although presidents are simultaneously limited in using these powers of influence, that political science has demonstrated presidential control over an institution once thought too intractable to manage is in itself a remarkable observation.
