Bitter harvest : FDR, presidential power, and the growth of the presidential branch

Bitter Harvest identifies the principles governing Franklin Roosevelt's development and use of a presidential staff system and offers a theory explaining why those principles proved so effective. Dickinson argues that presidents institutionalize staff to acquire the information and expertise necessary to better predict the likely impact their specific bargaining choices will have on the end results they desire. Once institutionalized, however, presidential staff must be managed. Roosevelt's use of competitive administrative techniques minimized his staff management costs, while his institutionalization of nonpartisan staff agencies provided him with needed information. Matthew Dickinson's research suggests that FDR's principles could be used today to manage the White House staff-dominated institutional presidency upon which most of his presidential successors have relied. Bitter Harvest identifies the principles governing Franklin Roosevelt's development and use of a presidential staff system and offers a theory explaining why those principles proved so effective. Matthew Dickinson argues that presidents institutionalize staff to acquire the information and expertise necessary to better predict the likely impact their specific bargaining choices will have on the end results they desire. Once institutionalized, however, presidential staff must be managed. Roosevelt's use of competitive administrative techniques was particularly useful in minimizing his staff management costs, while his institutionalization of nonpartisan staff agencies provided him with the necessary bargaining resources. Matthew Dickinson's research suggests that FDR's principles could be used today to correct the most glaring deficiencies of the White House staff-dominated institutional presidency upon which most of his presidential successors have relied.

This book argues that modern presidents could learn much from Franklin Roosevelt's method of organizing his presidency. Roosevelt consciously avoided a large, functionally specialized White House bureaucracy. Instead, he developed staff agencies composed mostly of civil servants and personally managed them using competitive administrative practices. Matthew Dickinson is the first scholar to reconstruct the methods FDR used and his research suggests modern presidents could benefit greatly by studying them.

There is an emerging consensus among scholars that the presidential branch is flawed, perhaps fatally so.

this Book Outlines Franklin Roosevelt's White House Staff Organization.