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Politics Paper 1 > Chapter 6-The Prime Minister And The Executive > Flashcards

Chapter 6-The Prime Minister And The Executive Flashcards

1
Q

What are the main institutions of the executive?

A

Prime minister
Cabinet
Ministers
Government departments

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2
Q

What is the Prime Minister?

A

The head of government and chair of the cabinet

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3
Q

What is the cabinet?

A

The committee of senior ministers which is the ultimate decision making body of the government

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4
Q

What is a government department?

A

An administrative unit of the executive that is usually responsible for a particular area of policy

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5
Q

What is a minister?

A

An MP or member of the House of Lords who is appointed to a specific position in the government by the prime minister

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6
Q

What are the executives core functions ?

A
  • Making policy decisions, set political priorities and determine the country’s overall policy direction
  • proposing legislation, executive devises and insisted legislation. Itself has law making powers on secondary legislation
  • Proposing a budget, executive makes key decisions on economic policy and proposes a budget.
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7
Q

What are the powers of the executive?

A

Prerogative powers
Control of the legislative agenda
Powers of secondary legislation

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8
Q

What are do prerogative powers include ?

A 
Making and ratifying treaties 
International diplomacy 
Deployment of the armed forces overseas 
The pms patronage powers and ability to recommend the dissolution of parliament 
Organisation of the civil service 
The granting of pardons
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9
Q

What’s the control of the legislative agenda?

A

It can limit debates on bills
Most bills made by government are approved by parliament and become law
PVM bills do not enjoy gov support are unlikely to succeed.

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10
Q

What are the powers of secondary legislation?

A

Also know as delegated legislation this a form which allows the provisions of an Act of Parliament to be brought into force or amended by ministers without requiring a further act.

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11
Q

What are the key functions of the Prime minister ?

A

Political leadership
National leadership
Appoint the government
Chairing the cabinet
Managing the executive, responsible for overall organisation of government and is head of the civil service
Prerogative powers managing relations with parliament, PM makes statements to and answers questions in the HoC + shapes legislative programme
Representing UK in international affairs

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12
Q

Two important aspects of the work of the Prime minister’s office are:

A

Policy advice, it provides the pm with policy advice which may differ from that given by ministers. Also help set future direction of government policy .PM appoint their own advisors The chief of staff being the most influential
Communications, responsible for the presentation of viv policy function has grown in importance with the intensification of the media focus on the PM

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13
Q

The main resources available to the prime minister are:

A 
Patronage 
Authority within the cabinet system 
Policy making input 
Party leadership 
Public standing
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14
Q

What are patronage powers?

A

The power of an individual to appoint someone to an important position

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15
Q

What are the patronage powers the PM has ?

A

Power to anoint government ministers
Life peers
Cabinet reshuffles

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16
Q

How has the PMs patronage powers been curtailed?

A

The PM now plays no role in judicial appointments and is given only one name to approve for ecclesiastical appointments

17
Q

The post of the Prime Minister comes with what specific authority within the core executive?

A

Chairs cabinet meetings
Manages the agenda of cabinet meets and determines their frequency and length
Directs and sums up cabinet discussions
Creates cabinet committee and appoints their members
Holds bilateral meetings with ministers
Appoints senior civil servants
Organises the structure of government

18
Q

How does the prime minister agenda set?

A
  • Controlling the information presented to minsters by determining which issues and papers should be brought before cabinet
  • Keeping potentially difficult issues of cabinet agenda by dealing with them in a cabinet committee or in a bilateral meeting
  • Deciding the chair, membership and remit of cabinet committees
19
Q

How does policy-making input show how powerful a PM is?

A
  • Have a license to get involved in issues across the political spectrum
  • A PM with a strong interest in an issue can give it a central place in the government’s programme
20
Q

How does partly leadership show how powerful a PM is?

A

The PM is the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, and a working majority in parliament strengthens their positions
because they can better enact the government’s programme
-increased backbench rebellion means PM can not always rely on party support

21
Q

How does Public standing show how powerful a PM is?

A

PM is a high public profile provides political leadership at home at represents the UK in international affairs
- good public standing and popularity strengthens their position

22
Q

What are the functions of the cabinet?

A
  • Registering and ratifying decisions taken elsewhere in the cabinet system
  • Discussing making decisions on major issues
  • receiving reports on key developments and determining government business in parliament
  • Settling disputes between government departments
23
Q

The main business of the cabinet and cabinet committees concern?

A
  • questions that engage collective responsibility of government because they raise major policy issues or are of critical importance
  • Matters on which there is an unresolved dispute between government departments
24
Q

When i the cabinets role the most significant?

A
  • Issues are especially important or sensitive
  • major or unexpected developments require a rapid decision
  • gov departments and ministerial committees have failed to reach agreement
25
Q

Cabinet meetings have a formal agenda with the following reports as standard:

A
  • parliamentary business
  • foreign affairs
  • economic and home affairs
26
Q

What are collective responsibility’s three main elements?

A

-secrecy, ensures sensitive information does not enter the public domain
-Binding decisions
Confidence vote

27
Q

What are the exceptions to collective ministerial responsibility?

A
  • Temporary suspension during referendums
  • Coalition
  • free votes
28
Q

How was collective responsibility affected by the coalition?

A

In 2010, the coalition agreement identified four issues on which Lib Dem would not be bound by collective responsibility

29
Q

what are free votes?

A

May be granted to ministers as well as Backbench MPs on issues of conscience

30
Q

What are the strains of collective responsibility?

A
  • Leaks
  • Dissent and non-resignation, cabinet ministers have survived in office even when their concerns have been made public
  • Prime-ministerial dominance, Ministers claim the PM has undermined collective responsibility by ignoring cabinet
31
Q

What is individual ministerial responsibility?

A

The principle that ministers are responsible to parliament for their personal conduct and that of their department

32
Q

What are the four main categories of resignation on the grounds of individual ministerial responsibility?

A
  • Mistakes made with departments
  • Policy failure
  • personal misconduct
  • Political pressure
33
Q

What is cabinet government?

A

A system of government in which executive power is vested in a cabinet, whose members exercise collective responsibility rather than a single office

34
Q

what is a prime-ministerial government?

A

A system of government in which the prime minister is the dominant actor and is able to by pass the cabinet

35
Q

Why might the prime minister be described as the pre-eminent figure?

A
  • Legal head of government
  • leadership of the government
  • The prime minister’s office
  • setting the political agenda
36
Q

How can the PM become predominant?

A 
combining effective use of institutional power resources with their
leadership ability and reputation
association with political success 
electoral popularity 
a high standing within their party
37
Q

What three trends are central to presidentialism?

A
  • personalised leadership
  • Public outreach
  • spatial leadership
38
Q

What are the main roles performed by ministers?

A
  • policy leadership
  • representing departmental interests
  • departmental management
  • relations with parliament

Politics Paper 1 (12 decks)

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