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America's Departments of State: Irregular and Regular Syndromes of Policy Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Bert A. Rockman
Bert A. Rockman*
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
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Abstract

This article (1) sketches a general explanation for the growth of coordinative machinery and of irregular personnel in modern governments; (2) identifies both general and specific reasons for this phenomenon in the United States with special reference to foreign policy making; (3) identifies within the American foreign policy-making context the modal characteristics of irregular and regular syndromes of policy making, and the conjunction between personnel and institutional base; (4) traces the implications arising from these different policy syndromes; and (5) evaluates some proposals for improving the coherence and knowledge base of American foreign policy making. The problems of defining foreign policy authority, assuring an integrated perspective, and effectively using specialized expertise are best seen in terms of the larger problem of governance in Washington against which all proposals for reform must be abraded.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 911 - 927
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1981

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