The Core Executive
- Created by: Holly Jackson
- Created on: 03-06-15 12:27
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- The Core Executive
- Prime Minister
- source of power
- from the monarchy
- ability to control the armed forces
- declare war
- make treaties
- annex and cede territory
- exercise patronage
- control the workings of civil service
- convention
- citizens, party, parliament, cabinet and key officials submit themselves to the PM
- leader of majority power
- PMs forced to give up the leadership must also give up the keys to no.10
- Margret Thatcher in 1990
- Margret Beckett for 3 months in 2007
- PMs forced to give up the leadership must also give up the keys to no.10
- from the monarchy
- powers
- patronage
- hire and fire
- ministers at all levels
- L.Johnson: "its better to have your enemies ******* in the tent rather than out of it"
- Michael Heseltine - "leader of the wets"
- L.Johnson: "its better to have your enemies ******* in the tent rather than out of it"
- senior civil servants
- bishops of the CofE
- peers in the house of lords
- ministers at all levels
- Prior to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005
- appoint senior judges
- nominate individuals for honours list
- hire and fire
- cabinet, government and the civil service
- number, timing and duration of cabinet meetings
- agenda & minutes
- PM can "take the feeling of the meeting"
- control the conduct of meeting and who speaks in them
- structure and composition of cabinet committees
- parliament
- timing of next election
- Blair & Thatcher 4 year terms
- The Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011
- timing of next election
- agenda & policy influence
- Thatcher - poll tax
- world stage
- mass media
- perogative powers to make war and conclude treaties
- patronage
- Foley's Thesis
- powers
- patronage
- hire and fire
- ministers at all levels
- L.Johnson: "its better to have your enemies ******* in the tent rather than out of it"
- Michael Heseltine - "leader of the wets"
- L.Johnson: "its better to have your enemies ******* in the tent rather than out of it"
- senior civil servants
- bishops of the CofE
- peers in the house of lords
- ministers at all levels
- Prior to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005
- appoint senior judges
- nominate individuals for honours list
- hire and fire
- cabinet, government and the civil service
- number, timing and duration of cabinet meetings
- agenda & minutes
- PM can "take the feeling of the meeting"
- control the conduct of meeting and who speaks in them
- structure and composition of cabinet committees
- parliament
- timing of next election
- Blair & Thatcher 4 year terms
- The Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011
- timing of next election
- agenda & policy influence
- Thatcher - poll tax
- world stage
- mass media
- perogative powers to make war and conclude treaties
- patronage
- 4 qualities
- spatial leadership
- attempt to distance yourself from office
- John Major's Citizen's Charter
- attempt to distance yourself from office
- cult of an outsider
- Thatcher over reforming the civil service
- Blair reforming the labour party
- public leadership
- using the media to appeal to voters
- personal factor
- voting for a personality rather than party
- spatial leadership
- reasons for growth
- patronage
- increasing heads of CS and agency chiefs
- increased workload so cabinet become a rubber stamping body
- greater use of advisers
- media
- powers
- limitations on power
- Bagehot collective view
- cabinet
- seniority of colleagues may demand inclusion
- 1997 - Jack Straw
- 2010 - William Hague
- need for an ideological balance
- 1997 - John Prescott
- 2010 - Ken Clarke
- reward for supporting PM
- 1997 - Gordon Brown
- 2010 - George Osborne
- excluding or forcing out key figures can be counterproductive
- dangerous enemies on backbench
- L.Johnson
- Michael Heseltine under Thatcher
- embarrassing cabinet resignations
- Mo Mowlam, Claire Short & Robin Cook under Blair
- MO Mowlam accused Blair of "control freakery"
- dangerous enemies on backbench
- Abuse of PM powers can lead to critisism
- Mo Mowlam, Claire Short & Robin Cook under Blair
- MO Mowlam accused Blair of "control freakery"
- Mo Mowlam, Claire Short & Robin Cook under Blair
- seniority of colleagues may demand inclusion
- Parliament
- PMs authority has no basis in constitutional law
- PMs need to carry their MPs
- In Place Of Strife Bill 1969
- vote of no confidence
- PM's tenure is very short
- party
- Failing backbench confidence
- 1989 - Anthony Meyer's "stalking horse" leadership challenge
- Failing backbench confidence
- public opinion
- disappointing opinion poll ratings
- bad results in local elections
- by-elections
- own abilities and circumstances
- Harold Macmillen - "Events, dear boy. Events"
- Herbert Asquith - "the office of the PM is what the holder chooses and is able to make of it"
- size of majority, prevailing economic climate or the unexpected
- Nortons typology
- egoist
- David Cameron
- seek power simply to exercise and retain it, motivated by self-regard
- balancer
- John Major
- ensure peace and stability is maintained, may or may not actively seek office
- reformer
- Tony Blair
- seek power, may be ideologically motivated, seeks agreement of party
- innovator
- Thatcher
- seek power, ideologically motivated, do not seek approval of others, personal imprint on policy
- egoist
- source of power
- The Cabinet
- role
- decision making
- Bagehot called it the "efficient secret" of british government
- undermined by the development of the PMs power
- key decisions may now be made elsewhere and then presented as a fait accompli
- 1997 - handing the control of intrest rates over to the bank of england
- key decisions may now be made elsewhere and then presented as a fait accompli
- coordinating departments
- activities of government departments
- Blair - "joined up govenment"
- activities of government departments
- forward planning
- addressing problems arising from policy/events
- decision making
- role
- Models of Executive Control
- cabinet government
- PM is primus inter pares
- reasons for decline
- increases scope and complexity of government activity
- emergence and subsequent rise of cabinet committees
- bilateral meetings and less formal arrangement
- behavious of cabinet members
- kitchen cabinet
- PM works with a clique of key advisers
- merely a rubber stamp
- departmentalised government
- individual deps have control over their specific area
- ministers act with a degree of autonomy
- therefore held accountable
- cabinet becomes an arena for interdepartmental coordination
- segmented divisions
- PM dominance varies in different policy areas
- presidential views
- see PMs powers
- cabinet government
- Departments
- hierachy
- secretary of state (e.g. George Osborne)
- ministers of state (e.g. Jeremy Brown)
- undersecretary of state
- private parliamentary secretaries aka "ministers bag carriers" (e.g. Desmond Swayne)
- undersecretary of state
- ministers of state (e.g. Jeremy Brown)
- secretary of state (e.g. George Osborne)
- collective responsibility
- members of the cabinet publicly stand by decisions made collectively
- if they do not they are exected to resign and argue from the backbenches
- Robin Cooks resignation over Iraq in 2001
- Labour publically campaigned on both sides during the 1975 EEC referendum
- individual ministerial responsibility
- forces both personal and role rsponsibility
- Crichel Down 1954 - Sir Thomas Dugdale resignation, even though the decision had been made by civil servants
- merits
- ensures that someone is held accountable
- keeps civil servants on their toes
- helps opposition to force justification of policy
- problems
- sometimes a result of political pressure
- 2012 - Andrew Mitchells "plebgate"
- responsibility can be defected to agencies
- 1995 - Derek Lewis, Prisons Agency Chief
- sometimes a result of political pressure
- forces both personal and role rsponsibility
- hierachy
- Civil Service
- reforms
- Fulton Reports 1968
- never fully implimented
- major changes under Thatcher between 1979 and 1990
- more business like
- Numbers reduced from 750 000 to 600 000
- Next Steps Programme 1988
- agencification
- 75% moved over to Q.U.A.N.G.O's
- agencification
- John Majors Citizen Charter
- emphasised need to forward planning and a less risk-averse culture
- Fulton Reports 1968
- roles
- research
- engine room of the government
- crucial as most ministers are generalists
- policy advice
- policy execution
- ensuring continuity betwen governments
- research
- principles
- impartiality
- civil servants serve the crown and should not be asked to perform party political functions
- undermined by special advisers and politicisation
- 1997 - Sir Terry Buurns resgned over concerns of the role
- civil servants serve the crown and should not be asked to perform party political functions
- anonymity
- they should not be identifiesd publically as the sourcde of policy
- undermined by rise of agencies
- 1995 - Derek Lewis, Prisons Agency Chief
- Clive Ponting and the Falklands war
- undermined by rise of agencies
- they should not be identifiesd publically as the sourcde of policy
- permanence
- remain in office
- undermined by fixed-term contracts
- remain in office
- impartiality
- relationship
- whitehall community model
- ministers provide drive and vision
- strong alience of both sides working together
- regulated by the civil service code
- adversial model
- there is a struggle for power
- CS has its own agenda and seeks to obstruct government
- ministers have limited knowledge and experience
- ametures in their department
- they can control the flow of information and deny ministers crutial facts
- 1977 - Tony Benn
- first heard of the wind scale nuclear station leak in his morning paper
- bureaucratic expansionism model
- CS serve their own intrests
- they create a bureacratic empire that is financially inefficiant and gets in the way of government
- ministers have a heavy workload meaning they rely on civil servants
- CS outnumber them massively and that means they can networkb holding informal meetings
- Tony Benn - " whn a government is elected they hae maximum energy and minimum knowledge, but when it is defeated it has minimum energy and maximum knowledge"
- CS serve their own intrests
- administrative model
- CS serve ministers
- provide the relavent information that allows ministers to make informed decisions
- enforced through the 3 principles that were introfduces as a rusult of the Northcote-Travelyan Reforms
- (see Next Step Reforms)
- CS serve ministers
- whitehall community model
- reforms
- Prime Minister
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