CHAPTER SEVEN

FORMULATING AND ACHIEVING PURPOSE

Power, Decision Making, and Strategy

During the administration of the first President George Bush, major newspapers carried reports about a controversial aide to the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) who had gained power in the department. The reports claimed that the aide had little background in housing policy and had received her appointment because she came from a prominent family. According to the reports, the secretary of HUD had inattentively allowed her to make heavy use of his autopen—an apparatus that automatically signs the secretary’s name—to influence major decisions on funding and agency policies. She garnered support from members of Congress by channeling ...

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