The Prime Minister And Executive Flashcards
The executive
-Branch of government concerned with creating and putting in place policies.
-Made up of the prime minister, cabinet and junior ministers.
-The heart of the government that deal with daily administrations of the government.
-Prime Minister: government head and chair of the cabinet.
-Cabinet: committee of senior ministers, ultimate decision-making body.
-Ministers: appointed by prime minister to build portfolio within the government.
-Government department: staffed by civil servants.
The role of the executive
-Make policy decisions.
-Propose legislation.
-Propose a budget – chancellor decides taxation and budgets following negotiations with cabinet and departments.
Powers of the executive
-Prerogative powers: power exercised by ministers that do not require parliamentary approval, acting on behalf of the crown.
-Making and ratifying treaties.
-Organise the civil service.
-Granting of powers and pardons.
-Have been limited recently; became a constitutional convention that parliament votes on the deployment of armed forces oversees, parliament voted against airstrikes on Syria in 2013 then gave approval in 2015.
Role of the Prime Minister
-Political leadership: decides political direction of the government, determines policy on high profile issues.
-National leadership: responsible for national security.
-Appointing the government: determines membership of the government.
-Chairing the cabinet: sets its agenda and steers direction of meetings.
-Managing the executive: head of civil service.
-Prerogative powers: e.g. deploying armed forces oversees.
-Managing powers with parliament: shapes government legislative programme.
-Representing the UK in international affairs.
Requirements of the Prime Minister
- Must have previously been an MP.
- Must lead a political party.
- Political party led must have majority in the House of Commons.
Prime Ministers powers
-Patronage: power of an individual to appoint someone to an important position.
-The Prime Minister can appoint life peers in the House of Lords.
-Authority within cabinet system: Prime Ministers power to appoint and dismiss government ministers, particularly at cabinet level, provides a crucial advantage over colleagues.
-Can determine agenda of cabinet meetings.
-Policy making input: licence to get involved in political issues across the political spectrum.
-Public standing: has a high public profile.
Collective responsibility
-Ministers must support cabinet decisions or resign from the government.
-Can be difficult when there are departmental/personal rivalries leading toa fight for resources.
-Secrecy: ministers must keep details of discussion in the cabinet system secret by keeping differences of opinion out of public domain.
-Binding decisions: once a decision has reached in the cabinet, no matter who opposed it, it becomes a collective decision. Cabinet members must then defend the decision or resign.
-Confidence vote: the entire government must resign if they lose a confidence vote, not just the Prime Minister. Last happened in 1979 when Callaghan’s Labour government lost a vote of confidence after a bill on Scottish devolution in the commons.
Exceptions to collective responsibility
-Temporary suspension during referendums: Wilson 19775 EEC referendum, Cameron/Clegg 2011 AV referendum, Cameron 2016 EU referendum
-Coalition: The conservative/liberal democrat coalition – issues could not be supported by the Liberal Democrats; towards the end of the premiership the liberal democrats became hard to ‘manage’.
-Free votes: Free votes are given on issues that impact on conscience. 1997 manifesto promise free vote on banning Fox Hunting. 2013 free vote on same sex couples marriage bill.
Strains on collective responsibility
-Media: Gavin Williamson (defence secretary) leaked information on security council in 2019. Books – Ed Balls, Nick Clegg.
-Dissident: unhappiness.
-Leaks: show dissatisfaction/ show conduct of the government. Brexit dissidence.
-Non-resignation: survive in office even after going public with concerns. Thatcher – economic policy.
-Prime Minister dominance: Boris Johnson told Sajid Javid (chancellor of exchequer) to sack advisers which he did not agree with, so he resigned.
Individual responsibility
-Ministers are responsible to parliament for their personal conduct and that of their department.
-Does not include being responsible for the actions of civil servants – Sir David Maxwell Fyfe 1954.
Why ministers resign under individual responsibility
-Department mistakes: rarest reason as it involves taking responsibility for the civil servants work. Sir Thomas Dugdale in 1954 for Crichel Down affair.
-Policy failure: occurs when ministers recognise own failures and/or receive pressure due to this failure. Lord Carrington and the Falkland Islands.
-Personal misconduct: when ministers are seen to have broken any of the ‘7 principles of public life’.
-Selfishness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty, leadership.
-Political pressure: minister is unlikely to remain in office if the Prime Minister considers ongoing publicity to be too damaging. Chief whip Andrew Mitchell 2012.
Relative power of the Prime Minister and the Executive
-Walter Bagehot 1867 – The English Constitution: primus inter pares (cabinet government with prime minister as the ‘first among equals’).
-Cabinet government: a system of government where executive power is vested in a cabinet, who have collective responsibility.
-Prime ministerial government: the prime minister is dominant and can bypass the cabinet.
-Flawed debate in the UK.
When can the Prime Minister be considered pre-dominant
-Richard Heffernan: all prime ministers are pre-eminent but not pre-dominant.
-Legal head of government (appoint minister).
-Leadership of government (set agenda).
-The prime minister’s office.
-Setting the political agenda through party/media).
-The Prime Minister will be predominant if they combine the effective use of these institutional power resources with their own personal power resources:
-Leadership ability and reputation.
-Association with political success.
-Electoral popularity.
-A high standing within their party.
-Pre-dominant prime ministers: Blair, Thatcher.
-Pre-eminent prime ministers: Johnson, Major, Truss, Brown, Cameron, May.
Why the prime minister can be considered dominant
-The prime minister generally dominates the cabinet; the prime minister chooses who will serve in the cabinet and the positions they will hold.
-The prime minister can dismiss members of the cabinet and to redistribute responsibilities.
-The prime minister controls the cabinets agenda.
-Example: Former British prime minister Harold Macmillan once postponed a cabinet attempt to suggest he step down, by stating that such a matter was not on the agenda for that cabinet meeting and would have to be dealt with later.
-The prime minister’s arsenal of power includes a degree of control over the flaw of information available to cabinet ministers and the right to determine the order in which cabinet ministers will speak.
-The prime minister is also accorded the right to sum up cabinet discussions and in effect to declare what was decided.
-Example: Tony Blair did not disclose all intelligence briefings to the cabinet regarding the Iraq War, supposedly as he was worried about leaking to the press.
Theories of executive power
-Cabinet government.
-Core executive.
-Prime minister dominance.
-Presidentialism.
-Prime minister dominance overlaps with these theories both as the measure of the extent of dominance and equally prime ministerial government.
