Nixon's Super-Secretaries: The Last Grand Presidential Reorganization Effort

"Mordecai Lee provides a lively and authoritative account of an important administrative reform undertaken in the shadow of Watergate. He argues persuasively that Nixon's experiment with super-secretaries might have been the last grand attempt to impose order on the bulk of the federal bureaucracy."uAlasdair S. Roberts, Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy, Suffolk University Law School

"A fascinating and highly readable look at the major effort to rethink the structure and relationships of the federal executive...covers in great depth and accuracy the events associated with the experiment to institute the counselor approach...promises to be the definitive history of the Nixon reorganization effort and a significant addition to the scholarship regarding the presidency and public administration...The author does an excellent job of detailing the intricacies of a bureaucratic system with the White House itself..."uJeremy F. Plant, professor of public policy and administration, Penn State University, Harrisburg

The Watergate Scandal of 1973 claimed many casualties, political and otherwise. Along with many personal reputations and careers, President Nixon's bold attempt to achieve a sweeping reorganization of the domestic portion of the executive branch was also pulled into the vortex.

Now, Mordecai Lee examines Nixon's reorganization, finding it notable for two reasons. First, it was sweeping in intent and scope, representing a complete overhaul in the way the president would oversee and implement his domestic agenda. Second, the president instituted the reorganization administrativelyuby appointment of three "super-secretaries"--without congressional approval. The latter aspect generated ire among some members of Congress, notably Sam Ervin, a previously little-known senator from North Carolina who chaired the Government Operations Committee and, soon after, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activitiesuknown to the public as "the Watergate Committee

Calling his appointees "Counsellors to the President," Nixon chose three loyal members of his cabinet: Caspar Weinberger (Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare), Earl Butz (Secretary of Agriculture), and James Lynn (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development). The three were given wide-ranging power over multiple departments and agencies and reported to John Ehrlichman, the president's assistant for domestic affairs. With the unfolding of the Watergate affair, however, and the subsequent resignations of Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman, the reorganization plan lost both its principal supporters and its priority within the Nixon White House. Five months after beginning, the effort ended abruptly, with an announcement at a hastily convened Cabinet meeting.

Asserting that Nixon's reorganization effort represents a significant event in the evolution of the managerial presidency and public administration, Nixon's Super-Secretaries presents the most comprehensive historical narrative to date concerning this reorganization attempt. The author has utilized previously untapped original and primary sources to provide unprecedented detail on the inner workings, intentions, and ultimate demise of Nixon's ambitious plan to reorganize the sprawling federal bureaucracy. Students, scholars, and public policy professionals will benefit from reexamining this unusual and largely forgotten presidential initiative.

Mordecai Lee is a professor of governmental affairs at the University of WisconsinuMilwaukee. His PhD in public administration is from Syracuse University.