The Presidential Library System: A Quiescent Policy Subsystem

This study examines the Presidential Library System, an agency within the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), as an example of a policy subsystem. A policy subsystem may be defined as an informal political coalition of individuals from different parts of a formal policy structure who cooperate to influence policy-making. Actors in a policy subsystem are multifarious, they span both public and private sectors at various levels of government, and may include agency personnel, congressional committee members, interest group participants, citizens of localities affected by the subsystem, and others. A policy subsystem’s strength lies in its ability to draw upon bureaucratic expertise, legislative leverage, and interest-group capacities to communicate with the government about the area of public policy it is vitally concerned with. Despite the 60 year existence of the Presidential Library System, its nationwide geographic distribution, and its approximately $30 million/year allocation from the federal budget, it is not widely recognized as a policy system and it has not been the subject of a detailed, scholarly description. The Presidential Libraries policy subsystem is described by tracing its development and mapping the richness of the administrative and political processes which support its continuin