ARCHIVE
White House Workshop
Bill Clinton Administration (2nd term) - Archive Edition
January 26-28, 1999
The FY 99 Public Policy Workshop Series
White House Workshop:
Leadership and Governance in a New Political Era
Held at The Capitol Hill Club.
Great Changes are occurring in the closing years of the 20th Century. Within the United States, demographic shifts and the globalization of the economy are altering both the players and the drama of American life. New technologies have changed the way we communicate with each other and the ways in which we gain information about politics and government. The White House Workshop will provide participants with a current overview of these broad social and economic forces which currently shape and define our society.
We are now experiencing a large-scale realignment of the role of the federal government. The potential for fundamental shifts in power, policies, and bureaucratic processes is greater than at any other time since the Great Depression and World War II. New social forces have changed the political environment-the parties, the candidates, and their campaigns. These forces have also affected the policy issues that government must address from education to language, from immigration to social services, from health coverage to hospital treatment, from national security to international commerce.
The shape of the presidency, however, is not simply determined by sweeping trends and grand policies. Whether we like it or not, personal ambitions, individual strengths and weaknesses, and private agendas are crucial elements in the formulation of U.S. public policy. The White House must nonetheless establish objectives, set priorities, and determine where and how they will fight their political battles.
It is often assumed that final policy outcomes are determined by clearly defined objectives and skillful manipulation of the "rules of the game." However, the "seismic" forces and the clash of personalities are often the main ingredients in predicting who will win, who will lose, or who will be forced to compromise.
Public policy seldom offers clear choices-only complex, often poorly understood, and interdependent options. These are the contradictory trends that define the range of professional choices facing business and government. With limited public resources available, the debate over which direction the country should take continues; and the public, the parties, and the experts are as divided as ever.
The White House Workshop will explore these and other contemporary issues through candid discussions with current and former White House and NSC staff members, members of Congress, campaign directors and pollsters, journalists, and other experts on presidential politics and public policy issues. For the government administrator and career professional, this workshop brings them directly into the heart of government and its central decision-making process.
White House Workshop Speakers & Topics
The Dilemma of Presidential Leadership: Steven Wayne, Professor of Government, Georgetown University; Author of Presidential Leadership, the Legislative Presidency, and The Road to the White House 1996
The Organization and Structure of the White House Staff: Roger Porter, Director, Center for Business and government, Harvard University; Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Former Assistant to President Bush for Economic and Domestic Policy
The Current Political Environment and Its Impact on the Presidency: Kenneth Duberstein, Former Chief of Staff, Reagan White House; Chairman and CEO, The Duberstein Group; Former Deputy Under-Secretary of Labor under President Ford
Presidents I have Known: A Political Reporter Looks Back: Tom DeFrank, White House Correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief, New York Daily News; Co-author, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms
President Clinton and the Media: Eleanor Clift, Contributing Editor, Newsweek magazine; Panelist, The McLaughlin Group; Co-author, War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics
Political Campaigns in the 1990s: How America Picks Winners and Losers: Jay Bryant, Political consultant; Former producer of At Issue, CNBC; Former Assistant to the Governor of Illinois
Presidential Leadership: Contrasts in Style: Edwin Meese, III, Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy, Heritage Foundation; Former U.S. Attorney General and Counselor to President Reagan
President Clinton and Congress: Personal Reflections: Peter Hoagland, Former Democratic Representative from Nebraska; Partner, Arent Fox Law Firm
Health Care Revisited: Julie Rovner, Free-lance Health Journalist covering Capitol Hill; Former Contributing Editor, Medical News Network; Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report; Commentator, MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour and C-Span
The Ongoing Congressional Debate: Domestic Issues vs. National Defense: Lawrence J. Korb, Vice-President, Director of Studies and Maurice Greenberg Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan
The Supreme Court: The Least Dangerous Branch? Jeffrey Rosen, Legal Affairs Editor, The New Republic; Associate Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Role of the National Security Council: Geoffrey Kemp, Director, Regional Security Programs, The Nixon Center; Former Special Assistant to President Reagan for Near East and South Asian Affairs
An Historical View of the President & The Media: Sid Davis, Former Program Director, Voice of America; Former Senior Washington Correspondent, NBC News
President Clinton and Public Opinion: Demographics and Social Change in America: Karlyn Bowman, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute; Co-editor, The American Enterprise Magazine
Politics and Policy: A Retrospective on the 1996 Elections and A Prospective on the 2000 Elections: Robert F. Delaney, former Senior Policy Advisor (Public and International Affairs), NASA Space Station Program; Former Director, Edward R. Murrow Center of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; Former Milton Miles Chair of International Relations, U.S. Naval War College
