Rethinking the Administrative Presidency: Trust, Intellectual Capital Building, and Appointee-Careerist Relations

In examining the administrative presidency from the seldom-analyzed perspective of careerists in the executive branch, in unpacking the concept of trust in unconventional ways, and in linking this expanded definition of trust to intellectual capital development as a precursor to successfully advancing presidential agendas administratively, this dissertation combines insights from cognate research fields of organization theory, social psychology, management studies, and social capital theory to offer a unique framework for studying the administrative presidency. This work investigates the means and extent by which the George W. Bush administration, during its second term, was able to increase the reliability, and reduce the cost, of information to achieve its policy goals through administrative means. More precisely, I examine how Bush's use of the "administrative presidency" conditioned levels of trust between appointees and careerists, which subsequently conditioned the level of explicit and tacit knowledge sharing within organizations.