The president must also make sure he has a balanced cabinet. In terms of terms of Geographical regions, Race (Bush had - African Americans, Colin Powell etc, Chinese American – Elaine Chao, Japanese American – Norman Mineta), Gender (Bush appointed 3 women), ideological balance (e.g. Bush appointed conservatives - John Ashcroft, Bush kept Democrat Norman Mineta from Clintons cabinet.
Cabinet meetings occur mostly about monthly, although Clinton only held 2 or 3 a year. Generally there is a trend for meetings to reduce in frequency as the administration proceeds (Reagan held 36 in first year, 21 in 2nd, 12 in years 3 and 4). This is due mainly to the fact that; some functions of the government are no longer applicable, the president has increasing strains on his time (especially if running for re-election) or possibly because the president may become disillusioned with his cabinet members.
These cabinet meetings serve many functions for the President. Firstly, to engender team spirit, this is important at the beginning as the president may not know some of them very well, the members might not know each other and the President will need to get them to move forward his political agenda. It also gives the chance to present a collegial and consultative image, providing photo opportunities etc. Meetings also provide a chance to give information to all members and get feedback from members (Bush called one 3 August 2001 to discuss administrations first six months.) A further function of these meetings is to debate policy, this has been used by some more than others e.g. Bush Snr prior to Malta summit with Gorbachev on foreign policy. They also provide an opportunity to check on the progress of legislation (Bush used 24 September 2002 to press for congressional action on military action in Iraq, the passage of the Homeland Security Bill and the budget. Lastly cabinet meetings provide an opportunity to solve inter-departmental disputes.
Cabinet meetings also serve several functions for cabinet officers. They can resolve inter-departmental disputes, meet with other cabinet officers before/after meetings, also meetings give them an increased standing back at their departments, reporting back from the President (may be able to give team fresh impetus etc).
Along with cabinet meetings there are also cabinet councils, smaller groups of relevant cabinet members to discus particular issues i.e. sub committees. Groups such as, the Economic and Domestic Policy Councils have been used extensively by Reagan, Bush Snr and Bush Jnr and reduce the need for cabinet meetings.
The cabinet officer’s role is to run their department, not to act as the Presidents principal advisors (the role of the EXOP) and they do not have a great impact in determining policy, especially since the emergence of the EXOP. They must take account of a number of things; Congress, who controls their funds, their own departmental bureaucracy, interest groups with strong departmental links and perhaps most importantly the President himself.
There are many reasons why the cabinet’s power is limited and why it may be claimed that today it performs no useful functions. A formal cabinet is not explicitly mentioned in the constitution, which states that the president “may require the opinion in writing of the principal officer in each of the executive departments upon any subject relating to the duties of the executive officer”. Here the words ‘may’ and ‘opinions’ are informal, ‘In writing’ does not foresee a meeting of Cabinet, and ‘on subjects relating to the executive office’ does not suggest any input on more general issues. The term ‘cabinet’ was invented by the media, to describe the meetings that were held with secretaries of War, Treasury and State plus the attorney general.
Ultimately, the cabinet can only be as strong as the president allows it to become, the President is not “first amongst equals” and holds “all executive power” this was iterated by president Abraham Lincoln when at the end of a cabinet meeting he stated 'Seven noes, one aye - the ayes have it' this shows that cabinet can be overruled at any time, some members of cabinet do not even have direct access to the president. This was shown in the Nixon era, as only John Mitchell had direct access to the president, while his colleagues could rarely get past presidential aides.
Unlike the British cabinet the US cabinet does not have a doctrine of collective responsibility, although some Presidents such as Eisenhower attempted to establish a system similar to this, and thus if a particular aspect of government is deemed to have failed the respective cabinet Head is likely to be sacrificed.
Under the presidential terms of Clinton, cabinet became too large at its peak reaching twenty five members. This may make it hard to function properly while also having personnel responsibilities overlap each other. Cabinet members generally serve for short periods of time, such as between the years of 1945 and 1995 secretaries of state served for around, on average, thirty eight months to twenty eight months; this might mean that they could not impose themselves on the role and make a significant impact.
A further reason why it might be argued that the cabinet performs no useful functions in modern times is that cabinet members are not always selected on their capability to do the job, they may be picked for other reasons, for example, when Clinton selected his cabinet so that it would 'look like America'.
However it can be argued that even in modern times Cabinet is important for a number of reasons. Firstly as individually they have large departments to run. Also, as Cabinet departments have massive amounts of money to spend. It should also be pointed out that some Cabinet departments/ Heads of cabinet are more important than others e.g. Donald Rumsfeld, Defence, Condoleezza Rice, Home Secretary.
I believe that whilst it is not accurate to state that today cabinet “performs no useful functions” as it evidently is still important for a number of reasons (massive budget to spend etc) it may be accurate to say that the influence or even importance of the cabinet is dwindling, with in recent times, the increased use of the EXOP in terms of things like policy. However the cabinet’s role is dependent on the President who ultimately has the say over how influential and important his cabinet will be in his administration.
