Roscoe - Bra Czar
In the United States the title "czar" is an informal term for certain high-level Executive Branch officials who direct or oversee federal operations on a given topic or who coordinate policies between different departments on a given topic. Examples are "drug czar" for the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and "cyber-security czar" for the highest-ranking Department of Homeland Security official on computer security and information security policy. Czar is also used to denote certain high-level, specialized advisers to the President, such as "counterterrorism czar" for a Presidential adviser on terrorism policy, and "war czar" for the President's adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A thorough history of English and American czars can be found here: Tsar- English and American.
The czar term derives from the title "Tsar" which was used to designate the Russian, Bulgarian or Serbian monarchs of pre-World War I Europe.
In the United States, the term czar has been used by the media to refer to appointed exective branch officials since at least the early 1940s, when Roosevelt expanded the government rapidly and appointed a host of brand-new federal overseers.[1] The Washington Post reported in 1942 on the sudden rush of "executive orders creating new czars to control various aspects of our wartime economy," and a cartoon from that year shows "Czar of prices" Leon Henderson, "czar of production" Donald Nelson, and "czar of ships" Emory S. Land all cramming onto one throne.[1]
In the postwar era, the rise of the "czar" has accompanied the expanding role of the executive office in promoting policy initiatives; the term tends to be used when presidents create special new posts for the individuals charged with pushing those initiatives through.[1]
Nixon succumbed to czarmania, appointing the first "drug czar," Jerome Jaffe, in 1971 (long before William Bennett took the mantle in 1988).[1] But it was the title of "energy czar" that got the most attention during those days of OPEC embargoes and gas rationing.[1] Though John A. Love first held the title in 1973, his more powerful successor William E. Simon really got the "czar" ball rolling.[1][2] The "drug czar" title was first published in a 1982 news story by United Press International, which reported that "Senators... voted 62-34 to establish a 'drug czar' who would have overall responsibility for U.S. drug policy."[3]
Since then, a number of ad hoc executive positions in both the United States and United Kingdom have been established that have subsequently been referred to in this manner. The term "czar" has also been applied to officials who are not members of the Executive Branch, such as Elizabeth Warren, named to a Congressional commission to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2009 and described as an "oversight czar",[4] and Senate-confirmed positions, such as the Director of National Intelligence, described as the "intelligence czar" in 2004.[5]
Rationale and criticism
Advantages cited for the creation of czar type posts are the ability to go outside of formal channels and find creative solutions for ad hoc problems, the ability to involve a lot of government players in big issue decision-making, and the ability to get a huge bureaucracy moving in the right direction. Problems can occur with getting all the parties to work together and with managing competing power centers.[6] The appointment of "czars" has come under recent attack. In 2009, critics of the Obama administration circulated a list of "czars" compiled by Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-partisan organization. TCS argued, "By our count there are at least 31 active Czars, giving the current administration more Czars than Imperial Russia had in its history."[7] Conservative commentator Glenn Beck has argued that the list of "czars" is evidence of a "shadow government" "giving the Obama administration unprecedented power with virtually no oversight."[8]
List of executive branch "czars"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ch_%27czars%27
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