Downing Street and Cabinet Government

Question 1

What is the Westminster model?

Answer 1

• Executive
• Hierarchical
• Command and Control
• Centralised
• Problems with the model

Question 2

What is the executive in the Westminster model?

Answer 2

• Prime Minister
• Cabinet
  
  • ‘A board of control chosen by the legislature out of persons whom it trusts and knows to rule the nation’
• Bureaucracy (Civil Service)
  
  • Apolitical - Career, work for any party
  • vs USA with Administrative overhaul of public servants

Question 3

How is the Westminster model command and control?

Answer 3

Government issues instructions

Question 4

How is the Westminster model centralised?

Answer 4

• Unitary State
• Power concentrated at top of hierarchy - no federalism
• Limited popular input: ‘the man in Whitehall knows best’
• Emphasis on strong, decisive leadership
• Failure to legislate is severe, as the government always has a majority

Question 5

What are the problems with the Westminster model?

Answer 5

• Unrealistic concept of hierarchy
  
  • Thatcher ousted - need support of cabinet/parliament/voters
• Unrealistic emphasis on positions rather than roles/actual function
  
  • Cabinet positions and official hirearchy present one reality, but the relationships and importance of different ministers to the PM may be different
  • Miles’s law - pursue policies that benefit the organisations they represent rather than national or collective interests. “where you stand depends on where you sit,”
• Unrealistic division between ‘political’ and ‘administrative’
  
  • Civil servants as apolitical: farcical
• Unrealistic emphasis on PM power
  
  • Thatcher ousted - need support of cabinet/parliament/voters

Question 6

What is the design of the core executive model?

Answer 6

• Prime ministerial machine
  
  • Private office
  • Policy analysis
    
    • A political group working for the PM - not departmental analysis
  • Press relations
  • Party political
• Cabinet machine
  
  • Cabinet
  • Cabinet committees
• Departments
  
  • Cabinet Office
  • Treasury
  • FCO

Question 7

How is the core executive model about roles rather than positions/structures?

Answer 7

• What is most important is ‘who does what’ (R.A.W. Rhodes), not ‘legally defined roles’
• Sociological
• Varied Roles/Varied People

Question 8

How is the core executive model about breaking down policy/admin divide?

Answer 8

• Treats the bureaucracy as part of the core executive, part of the political process, not seperate or beholden to executive
• Challenges the notion that the minister/secretary is in charge, on the basis that generally they will not have more knowledge and experience about their particular department than the civil servants who comprise it

Question 9

How is the core executive model about network rather than hierarchy?

Answer 9

• Just focusing on legal roles may miss a great number of people - e.g. most important individual in some political decisions are not politicians at all but private citizens or corporations
• i.e. Executive design and composition is not going to be the same every time

Question 10

What is the PM in the core executive model?

Answer 10

• Power dispersed through actors in core executive
• Resources bargained to allow governing to happen
• Degree of power dependent on resources held
• PM power contingent

Question 11

How is the PMs power contingent in the core executive model?

Answer 11

• Personal resources
  
  • Reputation, skill and ability
  • Association with actual/anticipated success
  • Public popularity
  • High standing within party
• Institutional resources
  
  • Legal head of government
  • Agenda setting through leadership of cabinet
  • No 10 (Party Political) and Cabinet (Civil Service) Office
  • Agenda setting in media: PM is in charge if contradicts cabinet member

Question 12

What are the two tenants of cabinet?

Answer 12

• Collective responsibility (Westminster model)s
  
  • Cabinet is one: cabinet solidarity
  • Can be waved - e.g. Brexit Vote
• Individual Ministerial Responsibility
  
  • If a minister/department messes up, they resign
  • Seen to be increasingly outdated

Question 13

What is the role of cabinet in the Westminster and Core Executive models?

Answer 13

• Role in the “Westminster Model”
  
  • Core part of the executive
  • First among equals
• Role in the “Core Executive” Model
  
  • More fluid
  • Some ministers more important than others, personal relationship with PM matter

Question 14

How is the w model hierarchical?

Answer 14

PM: Cabinet (Civil Service): Ministers: Parliament: Voters