L. Ragsdale et Jj. Theis, THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, 1924-92, American journal of political science, 41(4), 1997, pp. 1280-1318
Theory: The institutionalization of the presidency involves the proces
s by which the office as an organization attains stability and value a
s an end in itself. Stability denotes that the entity cannot be easily
altered or eliminated, while value involves the entity acquiring a di
stinctive identify. More specifically, the presidency becomes institut
ionalized when it attains high levels of four features: autonomy (the
independence of the presidency from other units), adaptability (the lo
ngevity of units in the presidency), complexity (the differentiation o
f subunits and staff in the office), and coherence (the manageable vol
ume of work). Institutionalization results from an interplay between i
ndividual interests within the organization and aspects of the environ
ment. Hypotheses: Government activity, congressional action, and indiv
idual presidents' efforts affect the degree of institutionalization ac
ross the dimensions of autonomy, adaptability, complexity, and coheren
ce. Methods: From 1924 to 1992, several descriptive indicators of the
four dimensions of institutionalization are analyzed, including expend
itures, duration of organizational units, employees, and workload. A m
ultivariate model is then estimated for the Executive Office of the Pr
esident, Office of Management and Budget, and White House Office using
ordinary least squares. Results: The presidency emerged as an institu
tion in the 1970s. In estimating the impact of government activity, co
ngressional action, and individual presidents on various indicators of
institutionalization, national government activity-measured by social
welfare expenditures and defense expenditures-has the greatest impact
. The effect of congressional activity is more limited. The indicators
for differences among individual presidents have little effect.