1. Who really runs Britain? Theories of executive power
DO NOW
Study the infographic on your tables, which summarises the findings of the latest Democracy Audit study (2012).
Can you explain why each of these measures might be relevant to the study of democracy?
What conclusions can you draw about the relative health of democracy in the UK from this body of evidence?

2. Learning objectives
To describe the make-up of the Executive in the UK system of government
To explain how power is shared between the Prime Minister and Cabinet
To evaluate the impact of the 2010 Coalition Agreement on Cabinet government

3. The remainder of this week
Thursday’s current affairs quiz coincides with the Scottish referendum. The quiz will take a deep look at the referendum issue. You have been warned.
I am away on Friday. You will have a written task to complete for the following Tuesday.

4. What is executive power?

5. The UK model of parliamentary government
Accountability
Executive
(Prime minister & Cabinet)
Personnel
Accountability
House of Commons
House of Lords
Supreme Court
Electorate
Legitimacy & Accountability

6. “The Cabinet is the hyphen that joins and the buckle that links government to Parliament.” Walter Bagehot

7. Theories of executive power
There are four main theories of executive power:
Cabinet government
‘Core’ executive government
‘Prime-ministerial’ government / Presidentialism

8. What is the Core executive?
The core executive refers to the institutions and individuals at the heart of the government machine. This may include senior Cabinet figures such as the Chancellor, the Cabinet office, civil servants and/or special advisors.

9. What is ‘Prime Ministerialism’ or ‘Presidentialism’?
Prime ministerialism refers to the theory that power is concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minster. The PM is able to make policy independent of the Cabinet and, at times, despite its private opposition.
Presidentialism is a more extreme version of the same idea.

10. What is the government?

11. Study the worksheet and decide whether these statements are True or false?
The Prime Minister must lead a party with a majority in the House of Commons
The Cabinet serves as the main forum for policy formation and control
The Cabinet has a fixed number of members and a fixed meeting schedule
All government ministers can attend meetings of the Cabinet
The chairperson of the Conservative Party can be a member of the Cabinet
All members of the majority party in the House of Commons are members of the government
A Prime Minister can only appoint members of his or her own party as government ministers
A prime minister can legitimately consider issues of gender and ethnicity when appointing ministers
Cabinet members can dismiss junior ministers
All Cabinet members must agree in order for the government to implement policy

12. Who is in ‘the government’ (narrowly defined)?
Type of member
Typical number
Role
Prime minister 1
The most senior member of the government and leader of the senior party. The PM forms and chairs the Cabinet, appoints and dismisses ministers, and is responsible for the organisation of government departments.
Cabinet members 22
The supreme decision-making body in government, made up of the most senior office holders, typically heads of government departments, plus a small number of senior party members.
Senior non-cabinet post 15
Holders of other important government posts, such as Attorney General. These people may be invited to attend Cabinet meetings on an ongoing basis or as necessary.
Junior ministers 60
Ministers who are typically responsible to a cabinet member.
Whips 17
Party officials who have the job of ensuring party discipline among MPs and peers—essentially, making sure they vote the way the government directs. The Chief Whip is usually a member of the Cabinet.
Total
116
Have omitted Cabinet Office and Senior Civil Servants

13. Characteristics of ‘the government’
The executive is formed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet; the PM is invited to form a government by the monarch
All members of the government must sit in one of the Houses of Parliament (fusion of executive and legislative); the majority are expected to sit in the Commons
Although the Cabinet typically debates and votes on all major decisions, the Prime Minster is responsible for directing government policy
The Cabinet typically meets weekly, but may meet more regularly if faced with serious matters of national interest
Sub-groups of Cabinet members can meet independently in the form of Cabinet Committees with responsibility for forming policy in a specific area, e.g. counter-terrorism; other ministers and officials can join these groups
The Cabinet makes policy and is bound by the principle of collective responsibility, or always supporting Cabinet decisions regardless of ones’ personal views
The representative qualities of the Cabinet and wider government is increasingly politically important
Members of the senior party who are not in government are called back-benchers

17. What is collective responsibility?

18. What is ‘Collective Responsibility’?
Collective Ministerial Responsibility
Secrecy
Government Ministers should not release details of Cabinet discussion. To do this would reveal differences of opinion between Cabinet Members and threaten the unity of the Government.
In 2008 under Gordon Brown there were a number of leaks from Labour Cabinet Members about his leadership style, particularly his inability to produce a clear vision for Labour. Chief Whip Geoff Hoon at the time called it “it is quite wrong for them to breach the confidentiality of cabinet conversations”.
Binding Decisions
Once a decision is reached in the Cabinet, it is binding on all members of the Government. If a Minister cannot accept it, they must resign. Thatcher suffered two serious resignations with Nigel Lawson (1989) and Sir Geoffrey Howe (1990) who launched a scathing attack on her.
Ministers who are unable to accept the leadership of the party should also resign. This was the case with James Purnell and Caroline Flint in 2009.
Confidence Vote
If there is a vote of no-confidence in Parliament (a specific vote to oust the Government) and the Government is defeated, then they must all resign from their Cabinet and Ministry posts. This automatically leads to a General Election.
This last happened in 1979 when James Callaghan the Labour PM lost a vote of no confidence after a Devolution bill was defeated.

19. What happens when Cabinet colleagues fall out?
Watch this interview with Baroness Warsi, filmed in August just after her resignation from the Cabinet.
What do her actions suggest about (a) the responsibilities of a Cabinet member, and (b) the power of the Prime Minister relative to his Cabinet?

20. How is a government formed?

21. How is a government formed?

22. What usually happens? For example 1997 General Election:
Labour had the clear majority in the House of Commons election – Tony Blair was therefore asked to form government by the Queen.
Tony Blair knew through the night as election results came in that he would be forming the next government. This is because it is undisputed that the majority in Commons forms government.

23. The conservatives had the most seats but were still 20 short of an overall majority.
Labour was well behind the Tories and would need a ‘rainbow’ coalition with Lib Dem and Others to form government.
The Liberal Democrats did quite well – this put them in a powerful position for negotiating a coalition government.
It became clear on the day after the election that no party would have an overall majority.
Gordon Brown did not resign even though Labour were far behind the Tories. The Labour leadership entered talks to form a coalition with the Lib Dems.
HOWEVER...
Rumour was that Clegg was unwilling to work with Brown and thought he should leave no. 10
Over several days, the Liberal Democrats conducted simultaneous negotiations with both the main parties wanting to form a coalition.

24. Would one like to have a go at being Prime Minister and forming a coalition government?
Bye bye Brown!
Gordon Brown remained PM whilst negotiations continued, bowed to the in inevitable. He resigned both as PM and Labour leader. He went to Buckingham Palace and advised the Queen that she should ask David Cameron to form a government, either as a minority or in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Thus a new government was formed. The whole process took just five days. It is likely to be a ‘blue-print’ for procedures in the event of more hung parliaments. Nevertheless, though the formation of a coalition had run relatively smoothly, the nature of government was dramatically changed.
Cameron accepted and shortly afterwards announced that negotiations for coalition with the Liberal Democrats had been successfully concluded.

25. Types of coalition Majority coalition
Normally formed by two parties in order to create a parliamentary majority and so pass laws.
Grand coalition
Coalitions between two major parties (for most of the past century, Labour and the Conservatives), normally in the face of a national emergency
Rainbow coalition
Agreements between many parties, often with widely differing political views. These are more common in Continental Europe than in the UK.
National coalition
Coalitions where all parties are invited to participate. They are designed to promote national unity. Britain had a National Coalition Government during the Second World War.

26. Types of coalition Majority coalition
Normally formed by two parties in order to create a parliamentary majority and so pass laws.
Grand coalition
Coalitions between two major parties (for most of the past century, Labour and the Conservatives), normally in the face of a national emergency
Rainbow coalition
Agreements between many parties, often with widely differing political views. These are more common in Continental Europe than in the UK.
National coalition
Coalitions where all parties are invited to participate. They are designed to promote national unity. Britain had a National Coalition Government during the Second World War.

27. Key questions
Read the article from Politics Review plus the section from the textbook beginning ‘Cabinet is the same under the Coalition in these ways’ and answer the following questions:
What effect has the coalition government had on the working of Cabinet?
How would you characterise executive power under the Coalition?

28. Is Cabinet government under threat?
YES
The Prime Minister has resources of patronage that will ensure loyalty: (s)he hires and fires ministers at will and decides whether ministers below Secretary of State level are included in the Cabinet.
The PM has access to a system of discipline through the party Whips which typically ensure broad party loyalty.
There is no requirement that the PM accept the Cabinet’s recommendations on major policy decisions, although repeated failure to do so may risk party loyalty.
The PM may pay more attention to the opinions of unelected ‘special advisers’ (e.g. in the PM’s office) than to Cabinet colleagues.
The media tends to focus disproportionately on the personality and character of the Prime Minister NO
The UK system government is still formally a collective enterprise, with Prime Minsters heavily criticised for behaving ‘presidentially’
The Cabinet provides valuable support for the Prime Minster when (s)he is held to account by Parliament
Some ministers are, in practice, “unsackable” because of their standing with the party or public
Public dissent by Cabinet members on key issues has brought down Prime Ministers (e.g. Thatcher in 1990)
Government is too complex for one individual to control: the PM still relies heavily on Ministers who have their own departments and a set of civil servants working for them

29. Additional resources

30. Who really runs Britain? Theories of executive power
DO NOW
Study the table comparing the UK with the Nordic countries across various measures of democratic well-being.
Can you explain why each of these measures might be relevant to the study of democracy?
What conclusions can you draw about the relative health of democracy in the UK from this body of evidence?

31. Measure UK
Nordic avg
Turnout in parliamentary elections
60%
79%
Proportion of the electorate who are members of political parties 1% 5%
Proportion of MPs who are women
22%
41%
Global ranking of press freedom (Freedom House Index – highest = 1)
26th
2nd
Global ranking for absence of corruption (Transparency Int’l Index – highest = 1)
20th
4th
Compliance with human rights (Human Rights Index – highest = 22) 19 21
Full time workers earning <65% of average national earnings
21.6%
7.9%
Proportion of the labour force who are members of a trade union
26.5%
69.2%

32. The central (core) executive in the UK.
The prime minister
Assisted by his or her own political office, cabinet, Cabinet Office, private advisers, think-tanks, policy units, the cabinet secretary and his or her staff.
Cabinet
Assisted by cabinet committees, Cabinet Office, policy units, senior civil service, junior ministers.
Cabinet committees
Sub-committees of the cabinet which consider policy in detail and report to full cabinet. ‘Experts’ and external specialists may be called to assist, as may senior civil servants and policy units.
Ministers (cabinet and
non-cabinet)
Assisted by their own political office, senior civil servants, private advisers, policy units.
Cabinet Office
Political advisers and civil servants divided into policy sections and various support functions. Think-tank reports may be used in policy development.
Senior civil servants
The senior ranks of the civil service who support ministers.
Assisted by the rest of the civil service establishment.