GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2010

Status

Accepted

Abstract

This Article examines the uniqueness of the transition between presidential transitions in the United States. The phenomenon of the transition between elected governments – a time where one political leader or party has already been elected but has not yet taken official power – is not unknown to the rest of the world. What makes the American system unique, then, is not the existence of the transition period, but its significance. In the major constitutional regimes elsewhere, political parties more clearly identify their policy leaders even when not in power, and thus have a much smaller number of personnel decisions to make when transitioning to power. By contrast, American political parties do not clearly identify who their policy leaders are when they do not occupy the White House. Because of that, and because American Presidents have such a large number of political appointments to make, the transition period becomes a crucial moment for the new American President to coronate a select few political figures as the current and future political and policy leaders within his Administration, and therefore within his party. The contrast leads to a simple, but significant, difference: While political parties in other countries define their policy leaders permanently, American parties define their policy leaders in substantial part through a singular moment of high drama – the presidential transition.

GW Paper Series

GWU Legal Studies Research No. 485; GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper No. 485

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