Macro-Economics for Macro-Policy

In influencing the content and operation of public policy at the over-all conceptual level, economics has emerged as a super-discipline among the social sciences. This influence is reflected in the American Presidency by the work of the Council of Economic Advisers, which, over the past twenty-five years, has proved to be the government's economic ideologist. The functioning of economic advice has been determined by the President's elastic demand for economic advice, the range of issues involving presidential leadership resources, the Council's participation in decision-making processes, and the institutional relationships maintained by the Council. Experience has shown that: 1) the application of economic expertise is shaped largely by political and bureaucratic factors and hence part of, rather than apart from, the political process; 2) consensus regarding basic economic theory is balanced by disagreement among economists regarding values and convictions; 3) economists work from common income, employment, and production data but different program data; and 4) the constraints of limited resources keep the Council functioning at the conceptual rather than the operating level. Application of professional macro-economic analysis to macro-policy yields a knowledge/power relationship that strengthens both presidential leadership and democratic government.