Cabinets of the President

Selection of the Cabinet

• The president appoints the secretaries that head the 15 major executive departments.• The 15 secretaries, the vice president, and several other top officials make up the cabinet.

• Cabinet secretaries advise the president, but they also serve as the administrators of large bureaucracies.

• Before making final cabinet decisions, members of the president-elect’s team may leak, or deliberately disclose, some candidates’ names to the news media to test the reaction of Congress, interest groups, and the public.

Selection of the Cabinet (cont.)

The Role of the Cabinet

• Each cabinet member is responsible for the executive department that he or she heads.

• As a group, the cabinet is intended to serve as an advisory body to the president.

• Throughout history, the cabinet’s role in decision making depended on the president’s wishes.

Historical and Political Reasons for Cabinet

Status

• Though several recent presidents have attempted to increase the cabinet’s role, most have ended up going elsewhere for advice.

The Role of the Cabinet (cont.)

Historical and Political Reasons for Cabinet

Status

• Some cabinet members—known as the “inner cabinet”—have greater influence because their departments are concerned with the most sensitive national issues. They include:– secretary of state,

– secretary of defense,

– secretary of treasury, and

– the attorney general.

The Role of the Cabinet (cont.)

Historical and Political Reasons for Cabinet

Status

Figure 1

Figure 4