Carnesale Comments on Government Leadership
'THE idea that the [United States] president is simultaneously responsible for the foreign affairs of the United States and also the person with the primary responsibility of execution of the laws as they relate to the domestic matters is as old as our country....
"[This is] the tension in the selection of a president ... between someone who will represent us well abroad ... as well as someone who will execute the laws and sound economic policy.... What has changed is that now a lot more people are at this intersection of the rest of the world and domestic policy. They used to be rather distinguishable
"One had domestic or foreign-policy responsibilities and this worked pretty well for almost everybody except the president. Now this no longer works for governors, it no longer works for members of Congress, it no longer works for most Cabinet members....
"I don't believe there is a single delineation between leadership and management; one of the things ... [to be done is to] disabuse people of the notion that there is a leader and then everyone else is the follower.
"There used to be this notion around that there were people that made policy and there were people that implemented policy - that line doesn't really exist. The people that implement policy are making it all the time because they operate within some broad guideline. They are always making decisions of interpretation. They are always making decisions of extrapolation. They are always applying to particular cases that don't quite fit the generalization."
