http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/3832583

The magic circle : a study of personal staffs in the administrations of Governors Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown

Personal staffs are a form of organization associated with patrimonial administrations in premodern societies. Despite their traditional and non-bureaucratic character, personal staff organizations have been emerging at the top levels of American government for the last forty years. The author examines this phenomenon by asking two questions: why is a personalized organizational form emerging in modern administrations and, what do personal staffs do that bureaucratic subordinates cannot? The author argues that contemporary staffs, like premodern staffs, are a strategy for centralizing and bolstering executive power under stressful management conditions, and that the utility of staffs can be understood by examining their social structure. The argument is elaborated through a case analysis of a personal staff organization, the Office of the Governor, under California Governors Ronald Reagan (1967-1974) and Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr. (1974-to date).

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