THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY, 1924-92

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.