Presidential Administration and Bureaucracy

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on the history of civil service; on presidential power; on bureaucracy; and on several other important questions of expertise and accountability. Keynote remarks on “The Need for Professionalism” were given by Jonathan Rauch, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The second panel examined presidential administration and bureaucracy. It revolved around two new papers: “Restoring Accountability to the Executive Branch” by Philip K. Howard of Covington & Burling, and “Presidential Administration, the Appointment of ALJS and the Future of For Cause Protection” by Paul R. Verkuil of the Administrative Conference of the United States. They were joined in discussion by Ambassador C. Boyden Gray of Boyden Gray & Associates, who is also affiliated with the Gray Center as a Distinguished Senior Fellow and a Member of the Center’s Advisory Council. The panel was moderated by the Gray Center’s Executive Director, Adam White. The papers and video are available at: https://administrativestate.gmu.edu/events/bureaucracy-and-presidential-administration/.

Featuring Ambassador C. Boyden Gray, Philip K. Howard, Paul R. Verkuil, and Adam White.