Chris Piper
Governance Researcher
Presidents increasingly use personnel to exert direct control over the executive branch—reshaping capacity, expertise, and accountability in the process. My work explains the strategy behind those choices, what they cost in government performance, and what reform would be required to change course.
About My Work
I am a Manager at the Partnership for Public Service, a Practitioner Fellow at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, and an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University.
My research examines how presidents use personnel to shape and control the executive branch—how they deploy acting officials and nominations strategically, how the Senate confirmation process shapes federal leadership, and what vacancies and growing politicization of the civil service mean for government performance.
My analysis has informed congressional staff, transition teams, and major media outlets, and appears in the Journal of Politics, Presidential Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and the Brookings Institution.
