UK PM and Cabinet Flashcards
What are the most popular/important/powerful people in the cabinet and shadow cabinet called?
Big Beasts
What is a meeting between the PM and one other minister called?
Bi-Lateral meetings
What is the administrative machinery of government, characterized by rule by officials?
Bureaucracy
Who are the Prime Minister and senior ministers, most of whom lead a particular government department?
Cabinet
What are smaller groups of ministers that make binding decisions to ease the workload for the full cabinet called?
Cabinet Committees
What type of government is where the PM is controlled/restrained by the cabinet and has to consult over decisions?
Cabinet Government
Who is the most senior Civil service adviser to the PM?
Cabinet Secretary
What are those who work for Government departments which report to Ministers called?
Civil Servant
What is the principle by which ministers must support Cabinet decisions or leave the Executive?
Collective responsibility
What is the collective group of Prime Minister, Cabinet and junior ministers known as?
Executive
What is a part of the executive, usually with specific responsibility over an area such as education, health or defence?
Government department
What is the principle by which ministers are responsible for their personal conduct and for their departments?
Individual (ministerial) responsibility
What is a loose informal group of senior ministers, officials and advisers who advise the PM called?
Inner Cabinet
What are the most junior rank in the government, also known as ‘Parliamentary Secretaries of State’?
Junior minister
What is an MP or member of the House of Lords appointed to a position in the government called?
Minister
What is normally 1 to 3 in a department and assists the secretary of state?
Minister of state
What is the PM’s power to appoint and dismiss members of the government and other significant positions called?
Patronage
What term is used to describe junior MPs in the government who have to vote with the government or give up their jobs?
Payroll vote
What is an executive dominated by one individual, such as a President or a strong Prime Minister called?
Presidential government
What is the idea that the PM makes all the decisions and ministers defer to the PM?
Prime ministerial government
What is a collection of advisers, politicians and officials who advise the PM, normally around 100?
Prime minister’s office
What is a set of powers and privileges belonging to the monarch but normally exercised by the Prime Minister or Cabinet?
Royal prerogative
What are the powers given to the Executive by Parliament to make changes to the law within certain specific rules?
Secondary legislation
What are cabinet ministers in charge of a whole department, e.g., the foreign office, called?
Secretary of state
What is an informal decision making style, characterized by a more relaxed approach to ministerial meetings?
Sofa government
What is the biased or distorted presentation of information to gain political advantage called?
Spin
