The document discusses the nature and role of the British cabinet and the prime minister's relationship with it. It notes that the cabinet is typically composed of 20-25 politicians appointed by the PM. Cabinet meetings are normally weekly and chaired by the PM. Collective responsibility means all cabinet ministers must publicly support decisions. There is debate around whether the British PM has become more presidential in style with greater individual power or remains first among equals in a cabinet system of collective decision making.

1. Prime minister and
cabinet!!!!!!!

2. The nature of
cabinet
• Composed of between 20-25 politicans, appointed by the PM
• Must be members of either the HOC or HOL
• Normally majority- in this case all members of cabinet are from
governing party
• Cabinet normally meets once a week unless there is crisis
• PM normally chairs meetings. Together with cabinet secretary, most
senior civil servant, PM decides what will be discussed and notes in
minutes.
• Cabinet committees have been created to deal with specific areas of
gov policy. 4-6 members, and chaired by PM or another senior cabinet
member. Ie defence, enviroment,health
• Minutes kept secret for 30 years but main decisions are made widely
known.
• Cabinet decisions are in effect, gov policy

3. ROLE OF CABINET
 Formalises and legitimises offical gov policy
 Sometimes deals with disputes between different gov
departments and ministers when their proposals conflict or when
there are problems allocating scarce gov funds between
different uses
 May meet in special session/s to deal with a crisis. Ie banking
and financial crisis in 2007-9
 Cabinet is where presentation of policy is determined. This is to
ensure that ministers co ordinate the way policy is portrayed to
the media and to the public.
 Business of parliament is arranged in the cabinet in conjunction
with the party whips.
 Policy formulation rarely takes place in cabinet, however
exceptions such as olympics 2012

4. Collllective responsssssibility
 Operation of cabinet depends on doctrine of collective
responsibility
 All members of gov including cabinet ministers and junior
ministers who are not cabinet members are collectively
responsible for all cabinet decisions and policies.
 All ministers must support + defend cabinet decisions publicly
whether or not they privately agree
 In a coalition, ministers may disagree with official policy in public,
but once a cabinet decision is reached they are expected to vote
with the gov in parliament. However, there have been
„agreements to differ‟ where even ministers have been able to
abstain on an issue. This happened over the raising of higher
education tuition fees in england and wales in 2010.

5. PM‟s powers
Formal (head of
state, do not vary)
 Negotiate foreign treaties
 Command armed forces
 Appoint and dismiss ministers
 Determine the structure of gov
and the responsibilities of
ministeries
 Head of civil service, power to
determine its structure
 Grant peerages and appoint
people to important public posts
Informal (vary)
 PM is chief policy maker for
the gov
 Represents the nation to
foreign powers
 Controls the business of
cabiners
 Can make decisions which
are required to deal with a
short term emergency
situation

6. RESIGNATIONS from the cabinet
over COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
 Cook and Denham in 2003
over the decision to
support the US led invasion
of Iraq
 James Purnell over the
general direction of policy
under Gordon Brown‟s
leadership 2009
 Clare Short over post-iraq
war policies
 Scott and Crockart in 2010
over the decision to allow
unis to increase tuition fees

7. Sources of PM power
 Prerogative powers which allow the pm to command
armed forces, conduct foreign policy negotiations and
sign treaties, appoint and dismiss gov ministers etc.
 Leader of the governing party- as the leader the pm is
acknowledged to be the senior policy maker and
controller of government appointments.
 Elective authority
 Authority of parliament. PM leads party in parliament as
well as in country.

8. The relationships between the pm and
cabinet – competing models
Prime ministerial
government
 This suggests that the pm is
dominant, controls the
cabinet and the whole
policy making process
 A theory that the pm
dominates the political
system. It therefore implies
that the other bodies in the
core executive, notably the
cabinet, have a subordinate
role.
Cabinet government
 This implies that the
cabinet remains the centre
of power and the main
source of policy making.
Though the pm is the senior
member, ultimately the
cabinet controls all policy

9. How can the PM control the
cabinet?
 Parties Can’t Be Crashed In-Chalfont
 Patronage- appointed, dismissed, reshuffled, promoted,
demoted
 Control of cabinet agenda
 Bilateral agreements- arrangements made outside main
cabinet with individual ministers or groups of ministers.
Under Tony Blair so called „sofa government‟
 Collective responsibility
 Inner Cabinets- group of senior ministers who are close to PM.
Members of such a group can control cabinet by determining
policy among themselves.

10. Limitation to PM power –
permanent/variable
 Cabinet has power to overrule PM. PM is limited by
knowing he must carry carry cabinet with him.
 Ruling party can remove PM. This has not happened
recently (with possible exception of that it was pressure
from the membership that led to Blair‟s resignation in
2007) the PM needs to be careful to maintain support of
his or her party membership.
 Parliament can overrule a PM by digging it‟s heels in
opposition to a policy of the PM
 The electorate can remove the PM at elections. He must
take public opinion in to account

11. Variable limitations - PM
MAJOR 90-97
 Led a disunited party, split over
Britain‟s relationship with EU. Could
not rely on cabinet‟s support.
 Started with a small parlt majority
which was reduced to nothing by
1996.
 Poor media image
 Major economic recession in first few
years of office. Run on the pound
humiliated Britain internationally
Brown 07-10
 Financial crisis 07-09, out of
his control
 Poor public image
 Opposition group campaigned
for his removal, could not rely
on support of ministers
BLAIR 97-07
 Suffered loss of support
after Iraq. Discovered to be
unjustified under
international law.
 Media image deteroriated-
obsessed with image
 Placed under faction
pressure in party that
supported Brown for
leadership
Cameron 10-
 Inherited financial deficit so
was limited in policy options
 Coalition with lib dems,
limited by the need to
maintain this.

12. What factors does the PM take in to
account when appointing cabinet ministers
INDIVIDUAL
considerations
 A close ally ie george osborne
 A reward for support in the past ie
Oliver Letwin
 A representative of a significant
section of the party, such as right
or left wing group eg Theresa May
 In a coalition government, key
figures from such ie Nick Clegg
 A potential rebel because of
collective responsibility, to silence
them ie Vince cable ----
„conservative immigration policy
is “illogical absurdity”‟
TEAM considerations
 Political balance- a
politically balanced cabinet
means there will be
members from different
sections of the party. Major
ensured left + right wing
member in his cabinet
 Coalition cabinet- cameron
has 18 cons and 5 lib dems
 Social balance- women and
ethnic minorities

13. Individual ministerial
responsibility
 Ministers may resign under the principle of ministerial responsibility:
 The doctrine that each gov minister is personally responsible for all policies and decisions made
by his or her department and will be required to resign if an important error is made. It also
means that individual ministers should resign over serious examples of personal misconduct.
 Ministers are responsible for all policies and decisions which come under the responsibility of
their gov dept. this is true whether or not they have been directly concerned with a decision or
policy.
 On a general level it means that ministers must answer to Parlt for the activities of their
department. They must justify their actions to MPs or peers, accept criticism and explain the
reasons behind their actions.
Ie David Laws 2010 over alleged financial irregularities
Nigel evans?
Andrew Mitchell
Chris Huhne
Defence secretary Liam Fox

14. Is the British PM now effectively a
president?
EVIDENCE OF PRESIDENTIALISM
 The pm enjoys prerogative powers. Thus, without the sanction
of cabinet or parliament. This is similar to an elected president
 Foley, an academic commentator, describes a tendency to
„spatial leadership.‟ this implies that modern pm‟s have tended
to separate themselves from the rest of government.
Sometimes, they have even criticized govt themselves,
suggesting they stand above it. Direct link to the nation?
 The media increasingly treat the PM as a quasi-president.
 Several PMs have adopted a presedential style. This means they
often claim to speak for the nation as a whole, especially
during times of crisis.

15. Counter evidence to the theory of
presidentialism
 The pm is not the head of state
 Pm does not have a separate electoral mandate.
 There are powerful forces that can control the pm.
These are mainly the cabinet and parliament. A
president has less powerful checks
 Not all prime ministers wish to adopt a presidential
style- they may wish to be more consensual, treating
govt as a collective body and not the instrument of his
or her power.

16. Factors to or against
presidentialism
to
BLAIR
 Led new political movement of new
labour
 Built up large policy making machine
reporting to his personally
 Committed to armed forces to major
action in kosovo, sierra leone, iraq and
afghanistan
 Developed much policy himself
BROWN
 Assumed a dominant personal
leadership position during financial
crisis
against
BLAIR
 Driven out of office by party
colleagues
 Lost his authority after iraq war
BROWN
 Personal standing in country began
quite low and steadily declined
 Limited by divided cabinet
 Did not adopt presedential style.