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"Worked Out in Fractions": Neutral Competence, FDR and the Bureau of the Budget
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“Worked Out in Fractions”: Neutral Competence,
FDR, and the Bureau of the Budget
Matthew J. Dickinson
Department of Political Science, Middlebury College
## email not listed ##
Andrew Rudalevige
Department of Political Science, Dickinson College
Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, Princeton University
## email not listed ##
Paper prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, September 2-5, 2004. Thanks to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and Dickinson College for financial support of this project; to the staff of the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, and National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, for their able assistance; and to June and Eugenie Trone for their hospitality.
ABSTRACT: Presidents seem to scorn the “neutral competence” political scientists insist they
need. Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45), however, evidently embraced this administrative approach – even at a time when the demands for presidential leadership were arguably greater than that experienced by any of his successors. Roosevelt thus offers an important historical test case for both critics and advocates of neutral competence. Focusing specifically on the Bureau of the Budget (BoB), we ask what historical circumstances dictated FDR’s use of this agency; how, if at all, that use comported with the more abstract notions of a neutrally competent presidential staff; and what lessons, if any, result for modern presidents. We argue that the BoB under FDR epitomized neutral competence, but that this orientation responded to his political needs. More generally, we conclude that what constitutes responsiveness varies greatly depending on a president’s political context.
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| | Authors: Dickinson, Matthew. and Rudalevige, Andrew. |
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“Worked Out in Fractions”: Neutral Competence,
FDR, and the Bureau of the Budget
Matthew J. Dickinson
Department of Political Science, Middlebury College
## email not listed ##
Andrew Rudalevige
Department of Political Science, Dickinson College
Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, Princeton University
## email not listed ##
Paper prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
Chicago, IL, September 2-5, 2004. Thanks to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and Dickinson
College for financial support of this project; to the staff of the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, and
National Archives facility in College Park, Maryland, for their able assistance; and to June and Eugenie
Trone for their hospitality.
ABSTRACT: Presidents seem to scorn the “neutral competence” political scientists insist they
need. Franklin Roosevelt (1933-45), however, evidently embraced this administrative approach – even at a
time when the demands for presidential leadership were arguably greater than that experienced by any of
his successors. Roosevelt thus offers an important historical test case for both critics and advocates of
neutral competence. Focusing specifically on the Bureau of the Budget (BoB), we ask what historical
circumstances dictated FDR’s use of this agency; how, if at all, that use comported with the more abstract
notions of a neutrally competent presidential staff; and what lessons, if any, result for modern presidents.
We argue that the BoB under FDR epitomized neutral competence, but that this orientation responded to
his political needs. More generally, we conclude that what constitutes responsiveness varies greatly
depending on a president’s political context.
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