Czars in the White House
The Rise of Policy Czars as Presidential Management Tools
An empirical analysis of the role of czars as tools for making and implementing policy
Description
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.
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.
News, Reviews, Interviews
Listen: Justin Vaughn on the New Books Network podcast (Link) | 9/07/2015