Unit 2: The Prime Minister/Cabinet - Powers and changes

Brief notes explaining how the prime Minister and the executive system works in the UK.

 The Prime Minister

• The first person generally held by historians to be the first Prime Minister was Robert Walpole
• Walpole established the basic features of the office and under him one can see the essential constitutional division between the monarch and the monarch’s first minister
• The former remained as head of state, but the latter became the head of government
• Up to 2010, 52 men and one woman have been appointed Prime Minister
• Several figures such as Gladstone have held the office on multiple occasions over the years
• Some Prime Ministers have gone down in history as major include:
• William Pitt the elder
• William Pitt the younger
• William Gladstone
• Benjamin Disraeli
• David Lloyd George
• Winston Churchill
• Others have been largely forgotten from history for a variety of reasons
• Seven Prime Ministers have died in office, though the last was Lord Palmerston in 1865
• Some have been short-lived premierships. The Duke of Wellington’s second term in office lasted less than one month
• In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was not uncommon for the Prime Minister to sit in the House of Lords
• Most Prime Ministers have entered office having served an apprenticeship in other senior ministerial offices
• The most recent Prime Minister never to have held ministerial office before entering No. 10 Downing Street was David Cameron
• The Prime Minister heads the government
• To fully understand the premiership, it is necessary to look at the powers that inhere in the office, as well as the constraints that operate
• It is also important to examine the person who holds the office as often this can make a great deal of difference to the role and powers of the Prime Minister

The office of Prime Minister

• In the eighteenth century, the person holding the premiership had little by way of a formal office
• By this we mean a significant body of administrative support
• Cabinet meeting were often disorganised with no one taking notes and civil servants had to approach ministers to discover what had been decided
• The situation changed notably in the twentieth century with the creation in 1916 of a Cabinet Secretariat and the appointment of a Cabinet Secretary
• The impetus for the change was the need for efficiency in time of war, but the structure was maintained in peacetime
• The Secretariat served to ensure the recording and coordination of decisions, operating under the person who chaired the Cabinet – the Prime Minister
• The position of the Prime Minister was also strengthened in 1919 with the creation of a unified civil service, under a Permanent Secretary as its head

Downing Street

• Over time, Downing Street has expanded (The Number 10 Machine)
• In addition to the private office, linking the Prime Minister to Whitehall, the PM’s Office has acquired a political office
• This helps links them to the party
• There is also a press office linking them to the media
• The Prime Minister has also acquired a body of policy advisers

The Central Policy Review Staff

• In 1970, a small body of advisers – the Central Policy Review Staff (CPRS), commonly known as ‘the think tank’ – was established
• It comprised some political appointees and seconded civil servants to advise the Cabinet on policy issues
• It answered to the Cabinet through the Prime Minister, but came to be overshadowed by a body of advisers answering solely to the PM, the No. 10 Policy Unit
• The CPRS was wound up in 1983
• The Policy Unit comprises a body of high-flying political advisers, including some policy specialists

Chief of staff and policy units

• Margaret Thatcher also appointed a Chief of Staff
• Tony Blair created a Chief of Staff, but with more extensive powers than those exercised by his predecessor in the Thatcher Government
• These included the power to give directions to civil servants
• Tony Blair also created a range of policy units that often reported directly to him
• There were designed to enhance joined-up government

The growth of Downing Street

• The expansion of the Prime Minister’s Office has meant that there are now approximately two hundred people working in 10 Downing Street
• Though the Prime Minister’s Office is formally a part of the Cabinet Office, it nonetheless now has its own Permanent Secretary
• The size of the staff supporting the Prime Minister is such that not all can be accommodated in 10 Downing Street
• The Permanent Secretary, for example, is housed principally in 12 Downing Street

The role of the Prime Minster

• The Prime Minister has several key roles. These include:
• Head of the executive
• Head of government policy
• Party leader
• Head appointing officer
• Party leader in Parliament
• Senior UK representative abroad

The Powers of the Prime Minister

• The Prime Minister is the most powerful person in government, but exercises no statutory powers
• Instead his powers exist by convention
• His main powers include:
  • Appoints, shuffles and dismisses ministers
  • Chairs the Cabinet
  • Controls Whitehall
  • Dispenses honours and public appointments

Appoints, shuffles and dismisses ministers

• The Prime Minister chooses who else will be in Government
• A new Prime Minister appoints over one hundred ministers
• Which ministers will form the Cabinet, and their ranking within Cabinet, is a matter for the PM
• However often their ability to appoint people is dependent upon their strength within the party
• Appointing and moving ministers may be undertaken not only for the purposes of reward but also to reflect the PM’s political values

Chairing the Cabinet

• The PM not only decides who will be in the Cabinet, but also decides:
  • When it will meet
  • What it will discuss
  • What it has decided
• The Cabinet normally meets once a week, but under some PMs it has met more frequently
• The agenda is determined by the PM and the manner of discussion is also influenced by them
• Some premiers encourage free-ranging discussion, others prefer more concise contributions
• The PM not only decides the composition of Cabinet but also what Cabinet committees will be created
• The Cabinet, a large body meeting once a week, is not in a position to transact all the business of government
• Most policy proposals are considered by Cabinet committees
• Only if there is disagreement in committee (and if the chair of the committee agrees) is an issue referred to Cabinet
• The PM decides who will chair the committees as well as who will serve on them

Control of Whitehall

• The Prime Minister decides who shall be the ministerial heads of departments
• He or she can also create, abolish or merge departments, as well as determine who shall be the civil service heads of those departments
• The senior civil service appointments are also the responsibility of the Prime Minister
• Tony Blair was very  keen to press for civil service change in order to enhance policy delivery and to combat what he termed ‘departmentalitis’

Dispensing honours and public appointments

• The PM formally advises the monarch on who should receive particular honours and who should be appointed to public posts in the gift of the Crown
• This means that in effect the PM determines who gets what honours
• These can include peerages but also who is appointed to various public bodies like the board of the BBC
• Equally roles in certain universities and the church can be in the gift of the PM
• Because there are so many, in most cases the PM employs a team of advisors to deal with this work for him or her

Other powers

• The Prime Minister has several other important powers
• For instance the power to advise the monarch as to when a general election shall be held
• The PM’s political capital is also enhanced by other aspects of his office as well as by the fact that he is party leader
• As head of government, the PM attends various international gatherings
• The importance of the office also means that there is significant media attention attached to it

The person in number 10

• The reasons why people become Prime Minister vary from PM to PM
• The skills necessary to exercise the powers of the office also vary
• Some enter No. 10 out of a sense of public duty or simply because they are ambitious for office
• Norton (1987,1988) identifies four main types of PM:
  • Innovators
  • Reformers
  • Egoists
  • Balancers
• Innovators seek power
• They fight to become Prime Minister – in order to achieve a particular programme, one that they have crafted
• If necessary, they are prepared to push and cajole their party into supporting them in carrying out the programme
• A leading example is Margaret Thatcher
• She pursued her goals with vigour often in the face of opposition from her own party
• Reformersseek power in order to achieve a particular programme of public policy
• However in this case it is largely dictated by the party itself
• Prime Minister Clement Attlee led a reforming postwar Labour Government
• The parties policies were clearly set out in the 1945 Labour Party manifesto, Let Us Face the Future
• Egoists seek power for the sake of having power
• They are principally concerned with the here and now of British politics, operating in order to maintain their occupancy of No. 10
• They will take whatever action they consider necessary to protect their position
• Harold Wilson was a good example of an egoist, variously contending with what he saw as attempts by other ministers to oust him
• It is arguable that Tony Blair also falls under that category
• Balancers seek to maintain stability in society
• They are concerned with the current state of society, seeking to ameliorate tensions and avoiding policies that may prove socially divisive
• They fall into two types: those who seek power and those who are conscripted
• Balancers by their nature tend to be Conservatives, such as Harold Macmillan, but the category also includes Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan
• Prime Ministers personalities can change significantly over time do often one person can fit several different categories

The powers of the Prime Minister

• The powers of the Prime Minister are thus substantial, though how and why they are utilised will differ from one Prime Minister to another
• The extent to which a Prime Minister achieves desired outcomes will also be dependent on others
• The occupant of 10 Downing Street does not live in a vacuum
• The Prime Minister has to work in a political environment that includes a large number of political actors, and their number – as we shall see – has increased in recent years
• This includes the cabinet as a key actor

The Cabinet

• The cabinet has its origins in the Privy Council set up to advise the King
• The Cabinet developed in the eighteenth century and, under the Hanoverian kings, it met regularly without the king being present
• Though the Cabinet came to work as a distinct body, the membership nonetheless was determined by the king
• With the widening of the franchise and the growth of parliament the cabinet broke free of the control of the monarch in the 19th century

The role of cabinet

• The Cabinet remains a core component of British government
• It has five main roles:
  • Approving policy
  • Resolving disputes
  • Constraining the Prime Minister
  • Unifying government
  • Unifying the parliamentary party

The growth of presidential government

• The debate as to whether Britain has Prime Ministerial or Cabinet Government is not new
• It was being hotly debated forty years ago
• However often in the past the cabinet has been weakened and unable to stand up to strong Prime Ministers
• The thesis of a presidential premiership in UK government has grown in recent years and is rarely challenged
• When it is challenged it is because the Prime Minister now has to operate in a more crowded political environment with more political actors

Presidential or constrained?

• The thesis of a presidential premiership rests on the Prime Minister becoming more detached from Cabinet, party and Parliament
• Also them operating as if the office is elected directly by the people
• The PM acts as the embodiment of the national will and intervenes within government to ensure a particular outcome is achieved
• This was particularly marked under Tony Blair
• Though Gordon Brown sought to distinguish his style of prime ministerial leadership from that of Tony Blair, decision making remained heavily concentrated in 10 Downing Street
• However, the thesis does not go unchallenged
• The Prime Minister is dominant within British Government, but not all-powerful, and the territory within which he is powerful is becoming smaller
• Prime Ministers are increasingly  constrained both within and outside government

Unit 1: Particpation, voting systems,

A simply must watch clip........so much politics here + 'Gorgeous George', brilliant!!!!!!

Unit 2: The Coalition - Lesson Plan

Below is a ppt presentation, followed by 4 clips on how the coalition came about (The 5 days that changed Britain). Following that is a worksheet that you need to complete. Once you have gone through all this, you will be able to answer any question on the Coalition and it's problems.
 

The coalition - 5 Days that changed britain from mattbentley34

Part 1:
 Part 2:
 Part 3:
 Part 4:

 Worksheet

Five days that changed britain bbc documentary (student question sheet) from mattbentley34

Unit 2: The Role of MP's in Parliament

Before the presentation on MP's roles, I thought I would share with you the Private members Bill  put forward by Tony Banks (Labour MP for West Ham) in 2004.

Just one of the many Private Members Bills that MP's can put forward if they feel strongly about it. He did receive some support - 2 other members signed the motion!

M ps role of an mp, general presentation from mattbentley34

Unit 2: The Role of MP's - Trustee, Delegate or mandate model?

Edmund Burke

In 1774 Edmund Burke explained to his constituents that, should they vote him into the House of Commons, he would act as a trustee of their faith in accordance with his own conscience. He asked them to trust him to do the right thing: The Trustee Model.

This is in contrast to the notion that an MP is a delegate of his constituents, voicing their concerns and voting in a way (s)he believes the majority of the constituents would want. This is sometimes know as The Delegate Model.

Alternatively, if an MP believes that they won their seat because they belong to the party with the winning Manifesto they may act to bring those election pledges into being: The Mandate Model.

Interactive Democracy recognises that MPs are torn between conscience, party and constituents on some issues. Yet they have no simple mechanism for measuring the will of the majority of their constituents and must make assumptions about what they want.

Unit 2: Prime Ministerial Power

An excellent overview of Prime Ministerial Powers - application to previous Prime Ministers included.

Prime ministerial power - Pros & Cons from mattbentley34

Unit 2: The Executive & the Prime Minister

Click here to access the presentation on the executive. Essential when answering any essay on Prime Ministerial power, such as:

To what extent does the Prime Minister dominate the political system in the UK? (40 Marks)

Unit 2: The Prime Minister

A Short video on The Queen and the Prime Minister - the weekly visit to see HRH.



Jim Hacker waits anxiously for the call confirming that he is the new Prime Minister. BBC Comedy.

Unit 1: Voting & Unit 2: Power of Parliament

Thank you to Jacob for finding this Guardian article on the recent by-election in Eastleigh. Not only does it highlight the issue of protest voting, but also the accountability of parliament itself...it seems voters do have a say after all!

Eastleigh: a hollow victory for Lib Dems

Despite all their talk of rejecting the 'old politics', Nick Clegg's party is now clearly part of the problem

The Guardian, Saturday 2 March 2013

They may be claiming Eastleigh as a great victory, and who can blame them? But the truth is that the Lib Dems lost 14% of their vote, compared to the 2010 election, which was exactly the same as the percentage of votes that the Conservatives lost. The fact that Labour attracted pretty much none of these lost votes doesn't say much about their prospects, either. Essentially, Eastleigh was a protest vote against both the coalition government and its opposition.

Yet while I can understand frustrated Conservative voters turning to Ukip, it's pretty strange, all that switching from the most pro-European party to one that exists to get Britain out of the union. One can only assume that large numbers of people – in Eastleigh anyway – are simply voting against a mainstream of which the Lib Dems have become a part. Basically, a lot of people in Eastleigh made a protest vote against parliament.

Eastleigh illustrates that, despite all their talk of rejecting the "old politics" prior to the last election, Nick Clegg's party has firmly established itself as an integral part of the "old politics" – part of the problem, not the solution. Not such a victory, after all.