158 Presidential politics
blind us to the fact that the presidency is an institution, and that the modern
presidency involves an extensive structure of offices and functions. It is to
this aspect of the presidency that we now turn, to look first at the role of the
cabinet, and then at the Executive Office of the President.
The Cabinet
The Founding Fathers’ attachment to the principle of the separation of pow-
ers in 1787 ensured that they would reject the system of cabinet government
that was then in an embryonic stage of its development in Britain. They saw
the British cabinet as a means of the maintenance of a royal dominance over
the legislature and they did not wish to put such a weapon into the hands of
the president. Some of the Founders, however, wished to establish some form
of council to advise the president, and the first proposal that was submitted
to the Constitutional Convention, the Pinckney Plan, incorporated such a
body. However, the Constitution as finally submitted for ratification to the
states contained no reference to a council, cabinet or other collective body to
work with or advise the president. It simply stated that the president might
‘require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the execu-
tive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective
offices’. Thus the Constitution left the president in a solitary pre-eminence
in the executive branch of government.
However, from the very beginning of the Union George Washington took
to consulting his heads of departments collectively as well as individually, and
as early as 1793 the term ‘Cabinet’ was being applied to this group of advis-
ers. Under President George W. Bush the cabinet consists of the Vice-Presi-
dent, the White House Chief of Staff and the heads of the fifteen executive
departments: the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Educa-
tion, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and
Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and
Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Cabinet-level rank also has been
accorded to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Director of National
Drug Control Policy and the US Trade Representative. The heads of agen-
cies without cabinet rank may be asked to attend from time to time for the
discussion of particular subjects.
Until President Eisenhower’s term of office, the cabinet worked on an ex-
tremely informal basis. There was no cabinet agenda and no minutes were
recorded. The business was conducted as the incumbent president wished.
Eisenhower formalised cabinet meetings, holding them weekly and introduc-
ing an agenda and minutes. He appointed one of his Special Assistants to the
President as Secretary to the Cabinet. President Kennedy, with a completely
different approach to the organisation of his administration, abandoned fre-
quent meetings of the cabinet and abolished the cabinet secretariat. The
cabinet virtually ceased to have any collective function, giving way to ad hoc