Executive

Question 1

Functions of the Prime minister:

Answer 1

Making governments

Directing government policy

Managing the cabinet system

Organising government

Controlling parliament

Providing national leadership

Calling elections

Question 2

Functions of the cabinet:

Answer 2

Formal policy approval

Policy coordination

Resolve disputes

Forum for debate

Party management

Symbol of collective government

Question 3

What factors does a PM consider when appointing cabinet ministers?

Answer 3

Reward loyalty

Need for ‘Big Hitters’

Need for a balanced cabinet

Need to placate parliamentary party

Good at job

Friends of the PM - David Cameron’s chumocracy

Question 4

Cabinet government:

Answer 4

Principle whereby the cabinet is the centre of policy making and is the central decision making institution

Question 5

Core executive:

Answer 5

Description of the central core of government where decision making and policy making take place

Question 6

Collective responsibility:

Answer 6

Doctrine that all members of a government are collectively responsible for all its decisions

Question 7

Prime ministerial government:

Answer 7

Theory that the PM dominates the political system

Therefore implies that other bodies in the core executive, notably the cabinet, have a subordinate role

Question 8

Individual ministerial responsibility:

Answer 8

Doctrine that each government minister is personally responsible for all policies and decisions made by their department and will be required to resign if an important error is made

Question 9

Political leadership:

Answer 9

Description of those who make key decisions and are important figures in the development of policy

Question 10

Presidentialism:

Answer 10

Theory that the power and status of the PM has grown so much that their is effectively a president or head of state even though they remain in constitutional terms, only head of government

Question 11

Features of collective responsibility:

Answer 11

All members of the government are collectively responsible for all cabinet decisions and policies

All ministers must support and defend cabinet decisions, even if they disagree

Ministers that break collective responsibility are expected to resign

Question 12

Sources of prime ministerial power:

Answer 12

Prerogative powers - powers of the monarch

Elective authority

Leader of the governing party

Authority of Parliament

Question 13

The Prime ministers powers:

Formal powers

Answer 13

Those that derive from the PM being head of state and enjoying prerogative powers

Question 14

The prime ministers powers:

Informal powers

Answer 14

Vary according to the political circumstances of each PM - all holders of the office have these powers, but not in equal measure

Question 15

How the PM can control the cabinet:

Answer 15

Patronage

Control of the cabinet agenda

Bilateral agreements

Collective responsibility

Use of inner cabinets

Question 16

Limitations to prime ministerial power:

Answer 16

Cabinet has the power to overrule a PM

Ruling party could remove a PM

Parliament can overrule a PM by digging in its heels in opposition to a policy of the PM

Electorate can bring down a PM’s position

Question 17

Evidence the PM is more like a president:

Answer 17

PM enjoys prerogative powers

Tendency to ‘spatial leadership’

Media increasingly treat PM as quasi-president

Decline of cabinet enhanced power of PM

Personalisation of politics has increased