the Relationship between Ministers and Civil Servants

Question 1

What are the 4 models of ministerial-civil service relations?

Answer 1

1) Traditional public administration model
2) Adversarial model
3) Whitehall Community model
4) Public Choice/Bureaucratic model

Question 2

What is the traditional public administration model?

Answer 2

This is where ministers decide issues in light of the advice they are given by their civil servants

Question 3

What convention is the traditional public administration model enforced by?

Answer 3

the convention of individual ministerial responsibility in which they have a lead role

Question 4

What is the phrase which is used under the traditional public administration model?

Answer 4

“civil servants advise, ministers decide”

Question 5

What is the Adversarial model?

Answer 5

Ministers and the civil servants are engaged in a struggle for power as the civil service has its own agenda and seeks to obstruct government

Question 6

What is the Whitehall communities model?

Answer 6

This is where ministers within the department provide the vision and drive and the civil servants fill in the detail based upon their knowledge and experience of what has worked in the past
-they work as a corporative force

Question 7

What is the Public Choice/bureaucratic model?

Answer 7

Civil servants serve their own interest by creating bureaucratic empires that get in the way of clear and effective government

Question 8

Who holds the view of the Public Choice/bureaucratic model?

Answer 8

the New Right

Question 9

Who is Tony Benn?

Answer 9

a Labour minister in the 1970’s

Question 10

What did Tony Benn think about the civil service?

Answer 10

that they had their own agenda and sought to steer new and inexperienced ministers

Question 11

How can civil servants deny ministers of essential facts?

Answer 11

as they control information

Question 12

What ratio do top civil servants outnumber ministers?

Answer 12

10:1

Question 13

How does the fact that civil servants can network lead them to be a ‘master’ rather than a ‘servant’?

Answer 13

as they hold informal meetings which ministers cannot attend due to commitments

Question 14

What is the average ministerial term?

Answer 14

2 years

Question 15

In what 5 ways are civil servants “masters” rather than “servants”?

Answer 15

• They control information denying ministers of essential facts
• Ministers have too many other commitments
• Top civil servants outnumber ministers 10:1
• Civil servants can network and hold informal meetings
• top civil servants tend to outlive minsters who usually last 2 years

Question 16

What was the BBC comedy Yes Minister based on?

Answer 16

the career of a minister who was constantly outwitted by his Permanent Secretary

Question 17

Who pays special advisers?

Answer 17

the tax payer

Question 18

What are most special advisers?

Answer 18

civil servants

Question 19

What are special advisers not bound by?

Answer 19

They are not bound by the traditional civil service principles

Question 20

Who are special advisers appointed by?

Answer 20

the government

Question 21

How do special advisers differ from civil servants? (3)

Answer 21

• partisan (not impartial)
• public figures (not anonymous)
• appointed ono fixed term contracts (not permanent)

Question 22

What are the 2 broad roles of special advisors?

Answer 22

1) to make government less reliant on the work of the civil service
2) to help the PM keep up to date with often far better staffed and resourced government departments

Question 23

How many special advisors has each minister traditionally been able to appoint?

Answer 23

2

Question 24

Which government used extensive use of special advisors?

Answer 24

Labour 1997

Question 25

By 2003 how many special advisors were there compared to 1990?

Answer 25

2003-108

1990-5

Question 26

Out of the 108 special advisors in 2003 how many were prime ministerial advisors and how many were government advisors?

Answer 26

27-prime ministerial

81 government advisors

Question 27

When were there a number of high profile scandals involving high level special advisors?

Answer 27

1990’s

Question 28

Which 3 people did the problems of policy, spin and departmental management at the Department of Transport lead to the departure of in 2002?

Answer 28

• Jo Moore
• Martin Sixsmith
• Stephen Byers

Question 29

Why did Jo Moore leave the department of Transport in 2002 after?

Answer 29

After the events of the 9/11 he sent an email saying that it was a ‘good day to bury news’