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Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Strategy of Inquiry -- 3. Paths to the Top -- 4. Roles and Styles in Policymaking -- 5. The Compass of Elite Ideology -- 6. Democrats, Pluralists, Populists, and Others -- 7. Interactions at the Top -- 8. Energy and Equilibrium in the Policy Process -- Notes -- Prior Publications -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- Part I - Assessments -- 1. Presidential Selection -- 2. Presidential Personality and Leadership Style -- 3. Advising the President -- 4. Presidential Policy Making -- Part II - Approaches -- 5. Studying Presidential Leadership -- 6. Cognitive Theory and the Presidency -- 7. Organization Theory and the Presidency -- 8. Formal Theory and the Presidency -- 9. Presidens, Institutions, and Theory -- 10. The Methodology of Presidential Research -- Part III - Comparisons -- 11. Foundations of Power -- 12. Evaluating Presidents -- Conclusion -- Notes on Contributors.

Using evidence from surveys of top administrators, we examine differences between Japanese and American administrative elites. Our findings are far more complex than the reigning stereotypes of an apolitical, technocratic and elitist Japanese bureaucracy contrasted to a politically charged, conflict-oriented and social-reformist American federal executive. For example, senior Japanese bureaucrats take political considerations into account, compared to technical ones, no less than top American officials. American administrators have a more negative view of the role of political parties than their Japanese counterparts and, on average, an equally negative view of politicians interfering in their work than the supposedly more elitist, autonomous and technocratic Japanese bureaucrats. The article closes with a discussion of why popular conceptions of the two bureaucracies break down in practice.