Premium
The Contemporary Presidency: The “Flying White House”: A Travel Establishment within the Presidential Branch
Author(s) -
BURTON MICHAEL JOHN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00304.x
Subject(s) - presidential system , presidency , bureaucracy , executive branch , political science , white (mutation) , public administration , law , legislature , politics , biochemistry , chemistry , gene
A conglomeration of civilian, military, and security offices works in concert to support presidential travel. Although domestic and international excursions are critical to a chief executive’s efforts to “go public,” scholars have yet to investigate the bureaucratic structure that makes travel possible. This article traces the growth and formalization of a presidential “travel establishment,” from Washington’s day to the present. In so doing, it challenges legalistic definitions of the “presidential branch” which focus on the Executive Office of the President (EOP), recommending instead a functional definition that would embrace a wider range of presidential personnel. The article further suggests that scholars regard the travel establishment as a partner to the EOP—the two operations maintaining institutional separation even as they coordinate parallel missions.