Trump’s ‘swamp-draining’ ambition builds upon Jimmy Carter’s reforms

The Founding Fathers were keenly aware of the headstrong nature of American society. Anticipating the likelihood that future leaders would seek extreme measures to gain power, they created a unique system of checks and balances.

The founders’ concerns are now center stage once again.

Three New York Times writers reported recently that former President Trump wants “to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government.” Trump’s campaign website confirms their conclusions, declaring that “President Trump will conduct a top-to-bottom overhaul of the federal bureaucracies to clean out the rot and corruption of Washington D.C.” 

Efforts to take partisan control of government began early in the life of the republic with President Andrew Jackson’s spoils system, initiated with his inauguration in 1829. Continuing after the Civil war, it  was characterized by mass turnover of jobs and officials after presidential elections.

The resulting inability to establish stable administrative structures was already noted by the French student of American democracy, Alexis DeTocqueville, in his famous book “Democracy in America,” in 1835.

The patronage system was a factor in the rampant corruption in government and the private sector during the “robber baron” era of the 19th Century.  

Post-Civil War reform of the federal government began with enactment of the merit system for appointment of federal employees (The Pendleton Act of 1883). By the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), a majority of classified federal workers and administrators had become qualified civil servants with permanent tenure. Under the progressive reform movement, both major parties embraced the principle that federal agency heads should be chosen for professional qualifications and ability to exercise independent leadership.  

The distinguished historian of the U.S. Civil Service Paul Van Riper showed that growth of public and Congressional trust in federal agencies allowed administrative laws to be short. They were generally less than 20 pages until the 1970s because Civil Service administrators below presidentially appointed agency heads were largely entrusted to oversee operational policy. Confidence in the federal government was at 75 percent in the late 1950s and 60s, according to polls of the Pew trust. It fell to 40 percent with the Nixon scandals in 1974, but systems of government remained largely unchanged when Nixon’s attempt to impound legislative funding was rejected. We are in a very different place today: Confidence in the federal government declined to around 20 percent in the decade from 2010 to 2020.  

Looking back again, Jimmy Carter was accustomed to the “pliant, one-party Georgia legislature” and wanted federal agencies to be more responsive to the president’s policies. In a speech to Congress, he complained about a “bureaucratic maze that stifled the initiatives of federal employees” 

He achieved the most far-reaching transformation of the federal government in 100 years by replacing the eight-page Pendleton Act with the 131-page Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). The bipartisan Civil Service Commission was replaced by three agencies. The main Office of Personnel Management (OPM) was now headed by a presidential appointee. Presidential power was enhanced through the creation of a new Senior Executive Service that could be reassigned by the OPM and given special tasks as well as remuneration. Additionally, the president was given authority to appoint temporary SES administrators who would serve under top presidential heads of agencies.

Carter was never able to take advantage of the CSRA to promote presidential policies because he was defeated in 1980 by Ronald Reagan. Ironically, zealous officials in the first Reagan administration made use of the new provisions to “clean house” in key federal agencies. This gave them the power to weaken enforcement of environmental regulations, which were blamed for the stagflation of the era. To that end, Reagan appointed Ann Gorsuch to the Environmental Protection Agency and James Watt to the Department of Interior.

Both Gorsuch and Watt were forced to resign by 1983, and Gorsuch was replaced by the respected William Ruckelshaus, However, it was too late. Conflict over environmental policy widened to political polarization in the 1980s.  

Despite efforts to achieve more harmonious governmental policies in the G.H.W Bush and Clinton-Gore administrations, partisan polarization continued. In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gases, but President Trump announced withdrawal from the treaty in 2017. Subsequently, President Biden recommitted to the agreement in 2021. Federal agency policies have continued yo-yo behaviors with change in presidential administrations.  

Trump and his Republican supporters have now openly challenged American law and democratic operating principles by denying the validity of the 2020 elections and seeking ways to subvert the Constitution.

History shows that politicization of federal government operations for personal and partisan purposes already began in the late 1970s with the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. Its subsequent effects helped destabilize government operations and led to lack of  trust in the federal government by a majority of the American public.

A significant fraction of voters have become supporters of Donald Trump. Lessons of history are being repeated.

Frank T. Manheim is an affiliate professor and distinguished research fellow at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.