Cabinets

Question 1

What do we see when we compare the two cabinets?

Answer 1

More structural differences, which lead to different outcomes

Question 2

What is the US cabinet part of?

Answer 2

The singular executive

Question 3

What does the singular executive mean for the US cabinet?

Answer 3

All executive power is vested in the president, none in the cabinet, which is why members are correctly referred to as cabinet officers or secretaries rather than ministers

Question 4

What does the separation of powers mean for the US cabinet?

Answer 4

That cabinet members must be excluded from the legislature and not have any obvious political affiliation

Question 5

What does checks and balances mean for cabinet appointments?

Answer 5

That the president does not have a free hand here, with their appointments having to be confirmed by the senate

Question 6

What is the consequence of the fact that the US cabinet will not have served together in a shadow cabinet?

Answer 6

They may be complete strangers to each other and even the president

Question 7

How is the relationship between the president and his cabinet structurally softer in the US?

Answer 7

They are not the president’s equals and have no elective base. They are not the president’s political rivals. They cabinet will therefore function as a somewhat distant advice giving body with little collective significance in most areas

Question 8

Ill list a function of the US cabinet and you give the parallel function of the UK cabinet

Answer 8

!!!

Question 9

Serving members of the legislature barred from serving

Answer 9

Membership exclusive to MPs

Question 10

Appointments subject to senate ratification

Answer 10

No formal limits on cabinet appointments

Question 11

President decided frequency and regularity of meetings

Answer 11

PM obliged to maintain frequency and regularity of meetings

Question 12

Cabinet members are subordinate to the president; the cabinet does not make decisions - the president does

Answer 12

Cabinet is a collective decision making body

Question 13

Cabinet members are mostly recruited for policy specialisation: rarely do they move to a different department

Answer 13

Cabinet members are usually policy generalists; hence cabinet reshuffles

Question 14

No shadow cabinet; members are often strangers to the president

Answer 14

Cabinet made up of long serving parliamentary colleagues and former shadow cabinet members

Question 15

Cabinet meetings are the only time some cabinet members see the president

Answer 15

PM sees cabinet colleagues regularly in parliament

Question 16

No doctrine of collective responsibility

Answer 16

Collective responsibility usually applies

Question 17

Why are UK cabinet members called ministers?

Answer 17

Because they have real administrative power vested in them

Question 18

Why do cabinet members have greater legitimacy in the UK?

Answer 18

Because most will be MPs from the commons and therefore have the same elective base as the PM

Question 19

Give an example of how cabinet members can be a political rival to the PM

Answer 19

Cameron was replaced by his home secretary, May, and may was replaced by her foreign secretary, Johnson

Question 20

Why do sofa politics, bilaterals and cabinet committee decisions not make the case that the PM has a similar relationship with the cabinet to the president?

Answer 20

No PM can ignore the will of the cabinet for very long and expect to survive, whereas the president could

Question 21

What did Thatcher learn when she tried to behave in a presidential way towards her cabinet?

Answer 21

Heseltine, Lawson and Howe resigned from the cabinet and played a significant role in her downfall

Question 22

What do PM often do with potential enemies?

Answer 22

Give them cabinet roles that correspond with their seniority to ensure loyalty

Question 23

Give some examples of PMs doing this

Answer 23

Blair and Brown

May and Johnson

Johnson and Gove