Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Politics > Executive > Flashcards

Executive Flashcards

1
Q

What is the executives job

A

Execute laws and policy

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What is the UK’s executive branch fused with

A

Legislature

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What does the executive consist of

A

1) PM appointed by monarch, head of executive
2) Ministers are appointed by the PM to lead a department. They can be the top 22 senior ministers or junior one who assist cabinet ministers
3) Civil servants
4) Party advisers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What is ‘executive’

A

The collective group of PM, cabinet and junior minsters sometimes known as government

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What do all members of the executive have to be

A

Members of parliament of the Commons or Lords

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

How large is the executive

A

120 people normally 92 MP’s and 24 peers

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What are features of a civil servant

A

They are permanent as they should not fear being sacked if they give advice to a minister they do not like.

They are anonymous in the background so the Minister takes the credit and blame

They are also neutral as non-party political including not joining a political party. They are supposed to advise the Minister on policy and not do their party political or campaigning work. (Johnson gov’t blurred this as Cabinet Sec Mark Sedwill should have controlled parties in No 10 as he is less neutral.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What are SPADs

A

Special advisors who help government

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

why are SPADs controversial

A

They can be sometimes seen as being too powerful or excluding ministers such as:

May’s top chief of staff Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill were both left conservatives and started ‘levelling up’ agenda but resented by the European research group

Johnson’s advisor Dominic Cummings was considered to let the fame go to his brain and was sacked due to COVID breaches

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Until 1649

A

Monarch has absolute power as head of executive

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

1721-42

A

Sir Robert Walpole was the first ‘PM’. When monarch’s ministers meet without the monarch and they needed a leader so unofficially became the prime minister

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

18th century

A

When ministers meet they call themselves the cabinet (office furniture). The conventions develop that they should be collectively responsible for what happens in their departments as ministers.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

By 1800

A

Gradually monarch has handed ‘royal prerogative’ powers to appoint minsters, declare war ect to PM and cabinet. However powers depend on conventions not a codified constitution

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

By 1900

A

Modern Civil service in shape it is today

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

1979

A

Thatcher has high profile SPAD Bernard Ingham as her Press Officer and nmber of SPAD’s increases from now on, leading to enlarged Downing Street and take over of wat had been a tiny Department called Cabinet Office.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

What is the role of the PM

A

1) Head of executive branch of government including Cabinet, Head of State
2) National leader
3) Party leader
4) Leader of parliament

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

What are the PM’s sources of power

A

1) Monarch
2) Party
3) Parliament
4) People

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Why is the Monarch a source of power for PM

A

Monarch has delegated royal prerogative powers to PM such as to declare war, appointing ministers (patronage) so PM is de facto Head of State. While Monarch would never interfere in selection of PM the fact has to go to palace after election for monarch to signal approval shows PM benefits from this public transfer of monarch’s trad authority.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Why is the Party a source of power for PM

A

PM is the leader of the largest party after an election, or become leader after party changes leader

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Why is the Parliament a source of power for PM

A

Parl shows approval not through any formal ceremony but approving PM’s budget or by not passing a vote of confidence. The larger the PM’s parl majority the more clear cut they should be PM: May had less authority in Parl after 2017 because she was seen to depend on DUP confidence and supply. If PM has a lot of new MPs (Johnson 2019) in theory they should be more impressionable and easier to control than if lots of embittered old hands

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Why is the people a source of power for PM

A

People vote in elections for party representatives for their constituency. ). PM who has not ‘fought an election’ usually has less authority eg Brown 2007-10, Sunak now. In between elections PM will have more authority if high opinion poll rating leads MPs to believe ‘coattails effect’ eg most Tories from 2019 believed Johnson should stay as leader to help them win next election, only when partygate turned polls consistently negative they got rid.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

What are the PM’s powers

A

Appoint ministers - public powers aswell such as chair of BBC
Cabinet chair - Johnson chose Richard Sharp who had allegedly organized him a loan
Foreign policy leader
Commander in chief
Election caller - Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011-2021 due to coalition but Johnson removed it to get Brexit done. Also can prorogue and recall parliament

21
Q

What are the factors affecting PM’s power to appoint Ministers

A

Party unity - May tried to create party unity by including hard (Johnson) and soft (Rudd, Lidington) Brexiteers BUT Johnson felt strong enough to purge the soft Brexiteers

Experience - : experienced ministers may improve policy making and also be dangerous to keep on backbenches eg Cameron included TWO former party leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith BUT May removed experienced George Osborne Ability eg Sunak promoted from Chief Secretary to Chancellor of Ex 2020

Coaltion - Cameron made Lib Dem leader Clegg Deputy PM and allowed him say over 4 other Lib Dem appointments to cabinet

Diversity - include Northerners (Prescott during New Labour years), women (Cameron increased proportion to nearly half), ethnic minority and so on

22
Q

What events has affected the PM’s role

A
  • Thatcher’s power increased because she had successfully fought off foreign invasion of Falklands,
  • Brown hurt by 2008 financial crisis
  • May post 2016 referendum affected by its dominance– the need ‘to get Brexit done’
  • Johnson not suited to dealing with health emergency
23
Q

How has prerogative power commander in chief changed

A

PM could commit troop with parl approval. Thatcher did this in 1983 Falkland and only consulted cabinet. Blair got vote of parl for Iraq invasion but did not need. 2013 Syrian gov’t used chemical weapons on rebels; Cameron asked Parl if they would approve air strikes, to his surprise he lost the vote and complied with their wishes.

24
Q

What is the role of the cabient - general

A

A convention where all major decisions have to ratified however it can be viewed that it is just a ‘rubber stamp’ and its power fluctuates

25
Q

Who is involved in the cabinet

A

Between 20 and 25 ministers. The most senior are the Chancellor of Exchequer, Foreign sec, home sec

26
Q

When are cabinet meetings and what are their purpose

A

They are held once a week and length can vary dependent on the PM. It allows a safe and open discussion of policy ideas. PM does not ask for votes but sums up the vies of what has been discussed. No votes reduce the splits of the cabinet.

27
Q

What are the six main roles of the cabinet

A

a)genuine sounding board for ideas and to decide policy (rare and more common when PM weak such as May Brexit Withdrawal Agreement).

b) ratification of major decisions that have usually been made elsewhere eg cabinet committees

c)crisis management/foreign affairs eg Blair determined to invade Iraq2003 but still made sure ratified in cabinet beforehand, if terrorist attack emergency cabinet may meet

d) resolve disputes between ministers over responsibilities or budgets

e) manage parliamentary timetable and parliament more generally

f)POLITICAL CABINET is term for extra meeting sometimes added on end, without Cabinet Secretary, when ministers discuss party matters

28
Q

Where are the decisions made apart from full cabinet (4)

A

PM’s, Cabinet committees, Chancellor of Exchequer, Group ministers

29
Q

How does the PM make descions not in full cabinet

A

Tend to make as many decisions as possible with their advisers in the Downing St Machine. If Ministers object to being sidelined they can resign (Foreign Sec Howe and Chancellor Lawson over Thatcher’s Euroscepticism and increasing railroading of cabinet 1989 precipitated her fall), or 11 Ministers who resigned over May handling of Brexit. But usually PMs can make a number of decisions on their own. PM may also persuade ministers by meeting them singly (sofa gov’t) deployed by Blair

29
Q

How does cabinet committees make descions not in full cabinet

A

PM sets them up eg on Illegal immigration/small boats and appoints members. Committees have official civil service papers and minutes. They make full cabinet more efficient because the handful of ministers directly involved in the issue will have more expert and in depth discussions; their recommendation to full cabinet about what to do usually carries weight. Cabinet committees became influential during coalition because there were genuine policy differences, but Blair bypassed them

29
Q

What are the two convention governing behavior of ministers

A

Collective cabinet responsibility and Individual ministerial responsibility

30
Q

How does the chancellor of exchequer make descions not in full cabinet

A

Chancellor of Exchequer is always powerful whether a close ally (Osborne with Cameron) or rival Brown with Blair.

30
Q

How does group ministers make descions not in full cabinet

A

There may be gangs of ministers calling the shots eg hard Brexiteers Gove and Johnson during May’s premiership

30
Q

What is CCR

A

Ministers should keep secret what happens in the cabinet and publicly back whatever decision is reached even if they did not agree.

If there is a parliamentary vote of no confidence in govt the entire cabinet must resign

30
Q

Examples of CCR working

A

§ Boris Johnson as foreign secretary in 2018 - after being an unenthusiastic support of May’s Brexit negotiations he resigned as he could no longer publicly support her Chequers Agreement.

Rishi Sunak as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sajid Javid as health sec in 2022 - Criticisms of Johnson’s leadership style came after Pincher allegations of sexually assulting two men and Johnson being aware of this. They both resigned within minutes of each other. Johnson resigned two days later.

31
Q

Examples of the PM acknowledging the difficulty to uphold CCR

A

§ 1975 Harold Wilson allowed member of the cabinet to campaign for or against membership - Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn

§ In 2016, May temporarily suspended CMR over controversial government plans to expand Heathrow. Johnson and Greening had constituencies that would be affected and were against the expansion.

§ March 2019 13 ministers in May’s government abstained on a vote to stop a ‘no deal Brexit’ even though the government was committed to keeping ‘no deal’ as an option.

32
Q

Examples of CCR not working

A

From 2010 to 2015 Vince Cable was the Lib Dem business secretary in the coaltion government. He was critical of Conservative colleges and publicly criticized George Osborne’s cuts in public spending.

Before Johnson resigned from May’s government his criticisms of government developing EU policy had been notably hostile. Johnson told the Daily Mail that the plan was ‘totally untried and would make it very, very difficult to do free trade deals’ and told The Sun that there should be ‘no monkeying around’.

33
Q

Why is CCR useful

A

Help PM to present a united front increasing voting support

34
Q

What is IMR

A

Ministers are responsible to Parliament and must go to Questions and Select Committees when requested

Ministers are responsible for departments whether their own judgement or that of a civil servants

Ministers must obey the ministerial code of conduct

35
Q

Examples of CCR working

A
  • Amber Rudd resigned as she admitted that she had misled the Home Affairs Select Committee and House of Commons when she stated there were no Home Office targets for removing illegal immigrants in 2018. Theresa May accepted this as she felt too weak to hang on to her.
  • Lord Carrington resigned as foreign sec from Thatcher after Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands. He said that the Foreign office should have been more aware of Argentina’s intentions.
36
Q

Examples of CCR not working

A
  • Gavin Williamson during covid (2020) refused to resign over the centre-assessed grades from GCSE’s and A levels. He abandoned the algorithm used therefore led to a huge administrative failure and resulted in many wrong grades being distributed.
  • Priti Patel was the Home Secretary in 2020 and allegedly ‘bullied’ her permeant secretary (civil servant). Therefore broke the ministerial code. However Johnson did not like losing ministers and liked Patel so successfully resisted calls to sack her. Shows that resignations depend on the power of the prime minister at any given one time
37
Q

Who has power within the executive up until 1960’s

A

PM had not become predominant and was only ‘first among equals’, cabinet debates were longer/more meaningful, less of the rubberstamp they later became.

38
Q

Who has power within the executive from 1960’s - 2010

A

Cabinet was less of a collective body and more of a support for a dominant PM therefore govt became more complex as full cabinet could not be expert enough

Media made the PM more of a celebrity

Eg thatcher railroaded the cabinet with poll tax , sofa government

39
Q

Who has power within the executive from 2010 - 19

A

This period single party gov’t weakened as the coaltion arrangements led to Lib Dem leader Clegg and 5 Lib Dem ministers in cabinet. Therefore cabinet gained more power

39
Q

How was cabinet rules adapted during the coaltion

A

There was collective responsibility and permission to deviate from CCR on polices. Clegg, Cameron, Osborne and Alexander met in the Quad to bypass full cabinet

39
Q

What happened in May’s election to resignation

A

She wanted to resurrect the PM gov’t and held an election to win a bigger overall majority. This failed and cabinet saw her as weak and cabinet was fighting (cabinets phones confiscated to avoid leaks) leading to her resignation.

39
Q

How did power shift in the executive during Johnson

A

Johnson won an 80 seat majority and was only dented by partygate leading to cabinet forcing him out.

39
Q

How did power shift in the executive during Sunak

A

He has not faced major rebellions but is not popular in opinion polls. Sacked Braverman showing authority

40
Q

The powers of the executive DO lie with the PM backing

A
  • PM perceived by the public to be gov’t representative and national leader giving authority
  • PM patronage power means he can command loyalty
  • PM role as chair of cabinet gives gives them control
  • Prerogative powers still mean can bypass cabinet
41
Q

The powers of the executive DO NOT lie with the PM backing

A
  • If cabinet determined can overrule
    -PM often has to put up with powerful challengers such as Brown challenging Blair
  • Cabinet can reassert some control over agenda making full cabinet meetings longer
  • Syria 2013 shows PM no longer has power to declare war without parl approval
42
Q
A

Politics (11 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions