Federalist No. 76: Does the Presidential Appointments Process Guarantee Control of Government?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02475.x
• Author: G. Calvin Mackenzie
• Published date: 01 December 2011
• Date: 01 December 2011

G. Calvin Mackenzie is the Goldfarb

Family Distinguished Professor of Govern-

ment at Colby College. Among his books on

presidential appointments are Innocent

Until Nominated (2001), The In-and-

Outers (1987), and The Politics of

Presidential Appointments (1981).

E-mail: gcmacken@colby.edu

S148 Public Administration Review • December 2011 • Special Issue

G. Calvin Mackenzie

Colby College

Federalist No. 76 describes the process for appointing the

top of‌f‌i cers of government, which was seen as essential

for recruiting the aptitude and tendency toward good

administration.  is essay examines the process as it

has evolved into a series of Herculean tests of political

endurance. Having illuminated the founders’ basic intent

for expeditious and honorable appointments, the analysis

provides a troubling indictment of the continuing

dif‌f‌i culties recruiting, conf‌i rming, and retaining

dedicated citizens as guarantors of liberty.

If only they’d known …

If only they’d known the federal government would

grow to cost more than $3 trillion a year and employ

5 million people.

If only they’d known that a civil service would develop

and yield a constant supply of senior public adminis-

trators with deep experience and high talent.

If only they’d known how dependent the policy-mak-

ing process would become on presidential leadership.

If only they’d known that political parties soon would

emerge and cycles of bitter partisanship would ensue.

If only they’d known that there would be a Cold War,

a Federal Bureau of Investigation, an income tax, nan-

nies, Senate committee staf‌f s, television, f‌i libusters,

and holds.

If only they’d known these things, the authors of the

Federalist Papers might have taken a more jaundiced

view of the Constitution’s design for f‌i lling the highest

of‌f‌i ces in the executive branch. But they could not

have imagined these perplexities of posterity.  e

Constitution they helped write was little more than

a blueprint for a tiny government of slender respon-

sibilities in a country with a small and dispersed

population. As that country and its government has

grown, its Constitution often has been stretched to

the breaking point.  e histor y of the presidential

appointments process is a window on the inevitable

tensions when an eighteenth-century document is the

manual of operations for public administration in the

twenty-f‌i rst.

 e framers of the Constitution devoted little thought

or discussion to the structure or operations or staf‌f‌i ng

of the executive branch.  e Constitutional Conven-

tion’s debate on the executive appointments process

was brief and superf‌i cial. James Wilson (PA) and

Charles Pinckney (SC) argued against the Senate’s

advice and consent role, believing, as Madison reports,

that “[g]ood laws are of no ef‌f ect without a good

Executive; and there can be no good executive without

a responsible appointment of of‌f‌i cers to execute.

Responsibility is in such a manner destroyed by such

an agency as the Senate” (1966, 578). But in the

voting on this language, nine states af‌f‌i rmed and only

Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed.

 e Constitution creates no departments or agen-

cies and seems to treat the selection of the of‌f‌i cers of

government as an afterthought:

[ e President] shall nominate, and by and with

the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall ap-

point Ambassadors, other public Ministers and

Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all

other Of‌f‌i cers of the United States, whose Ap-

pointments are not herein otherwise provided

for, and which shall be established by Law: but

the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment

of such inferior Of‌f‌i cers, as they think proper,

in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or

in the Heads of Departments.

 e President shall have Power to f‌i ll up all

Vacancies that may happen during the Recess

of the Senate, by granting Commissions which

shall expire at the End of their next Session.

Alexander Hamilton was the driving force behind the

production of the Federalist Papers. He wrote 51 of the

Federalist No. 76: Does the Presidential Appointments Process

Guarantee Control of Government?