The US Cabinet Flashcards
What is the US cabinet?
-advisory body to help pres run federal gov
-includes VP + heads of 15 executive deps e.g. sec of state, sec of treasury, etc.
What type of people are cabinet members?
-policy specialists + give advice on their specific dep as opposed to general political advice
What backgrounds to cabinet members come from?
-former politicians e.g. Hilary Clinton former senator + First Lady was Obamas sec of state
-academics e.g. Obama appointed Nobel prize winner physicist Chu as sec of energy
-lobbyists e.g. Trump appointed former coal lobbyist Wheeler head of environmental protection agency (EPA) 2018
What does the makeup of a cabinet reflect?
-pres own perspective + experience
-e.g. W. Bush pro-business + appointed no. of business leaders + CEOs in cab
-whereas Obama academic cab as a former law graduate + appointed strong academic profiles with 2/3 from Ivy League
How does the composition of a cab synoptic link with UK?
-PM ‘primus inter pares’ - first among equals
-system of cab gov means power held collectively by cab rather than by single executive as in US
What is the power of the cab in US?
-pres has sole executive authority - cab work for pres + can ignore their advice
-e.g. Trump sacked sec of state Tilerson via twitter 2018 before Trump was banned from it
How can the cab be seen to have more influence?
-individual cab members can have more influence over pres
-but all cab officers ‘serve at the pleasure of the pres’
How is the cabinet lacking in importance?
-not mentioned in constitution
-has limited power due to only giving opinions that can be ignored
How does the cabinet have importance?
-states in article 2 the pres ‘may require opinion…of principal officer in each…dep upon any subject relating to duties of their respected officers’
-individual cab members paid well - $155,000 per annum
