Reorganizations and Reforms: Promises, Promises

Abstract

In this analysis, the authors argue that reorganizations symbolize a chief executive's attempt to dominate the bureaucracy. Using the Senior Executive Service as a case study, it is contended that executive reorganizations are pervasive rites of presidential politics and civil service reform is a myth on which this rite is based. Unlike other students of the subject, Vogelsang-Coombs and Cum mins do not share the view that the bureaucracy problem can be solved. Reorganizations change the form, but not necessarily the underlying political reality, of public administration.