Has the Prime Minister become more powerful in recent years? (40) The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the head of government and so exercises many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. According to custom, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, which he or she heads, are accountable for their actions to Parliament, of which they are members by modern convention. The current Prime Minister is David Cameron (of the Conservative Party), who has been in office since 2010, and the Deputy Prime Minister – Nick Clegg, due to the Coalition. During Mr. Cameron’s period in office and also, many Prime Ministers before him like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, there’s been wide spread debate about whether the power of the prime minister has increased.
An essential model of the executive that has been in operation for many of our previous governments is Cabinet government, which could be said to sprout from the idea that the prime minister was originally ‘primus inter pares’, according to Walter Bagehot – or ‘first among equals’. This form of leadership is usually approached with prime ministers using cabinet frequently to seek advice and counsel on issues and even proposed legislation. As the chair of cabinet and head of government, the prime minister has power over the length and frequency of the meetings, and as part of Cabinet government, this is usually exercised in a manner such that the Prime minister does not have any significant power over the rest of cabinet, and therefore decisions should be made collectively as possible, and consensus should be achieved. The issue of collective responsibility must also be mentioned; this is an important aspect of UK government and maintains strength in the executive. This type of government was operating in full flow under the leadership of James Callaghan in 1976, where he allowed his cabinet to freely debate whether or not the UK should accept the loan from the IMF.
Discuss how democratic Britain became during the period 1830-1918 Britain underwent significant social and political changes from 1850-1918 and these changes resulted in the government and country becoming more democratic. The years before the first world war saw a huge change in Britain. The country became much more modernized and urbanized and this change in Britain put a strain on old aristocratic constitution. It was a time when citizens were becoming increasingly aware of the lack of democracy within the country. This essay plans to analyse and explain the extension of the franchise from 1830 and to asses whether Britain was fully democratic by 1918.
In 2001 George Bush issued an Executive order to create a Departmental of Homeland Security (DHS), which came into existence in 2003 when 22 agencies were brought together in one department. This significantly increased the potential of the administration to monitor the people in the USA.. The President can also make treaties but they have to be approved by the Senate before it can become official. The President has an important role to play in the legislative function. This includes the formation of legislation and passing new laws.
As the America's leader, the president is considered our countries head figure who stands and acts for the American people as a whole. Many of these implied powers, which are assumed as granted under the Constitution although not explicitly listed, branch from a president's responsibilities that increased over the past few decades. Many presidents have used their implied or informal presidential powers to enhance their personal influences, and often the power and potential influences of later presidents. These informal powers are also derived in part from the president’s use of the image and reputation of the office
Is Cabinet Government Dead? Cabinet government is a system of government in which executive power is concentrated in the cabinet, which is made up of heads of government departments, who exercise collective responsibility. Traditionally, within government the Prime Minister is ‘primus inter pares’ or ‘first among equals’ which reinsures the fact that he is a minister, not a president, of which some Prime Ministers may seem to appear. The cabinet fulfils many functions, these may have changed overtime but the principle functions include making policy decisions. Overtime, the role of the cabinet may have increasingly been seen to be less and this may have changed peoples’ perception on the system of government used in the UK.
Discuss how two Prime Ministers differed in their treatment and use of the cabinet (10 marks) A Prime Minister’s (PM) relationship and utilization of his/her cabinet can be an important factor in determining a successful premiership as PM. PMs over recent decades have differed in various ways in their treatment and use of the cabinet. Two examples of PMs who have contrasted in their approaches to their cabinet are John Major (PM from 1990-1997) and Tony Blair (PM from 1997-2007). John Major can be regarded as a more transactional leader, in the sense that he took a preference to a more collective cabinet; decisions would be made in cooperative meetings involving all cabinet ministers and there was room for compromise on certain issues discussed in Cabinet Office. In that regard, Major adopted a more collegiate style in his cabinet, making sure that all ministers had a contribution in the discussions at hand.
Or simply more popular ones? The most important information in this chapter is the American Presidency how it has evolved and what role it plays in American politics and government, expanding presidency, the powers and roles of the president, the President’s staff cabinet, the President and Congress: Perpetual Tug of War and The president and the people an evolving relationship. The main inference in this chapter are Structure, Political Linkage Government, and Government Action. The key concepts we need to understand in this chapter are Framework, Mapping America Politics, and Using the Democracy Standard. The main assumption underlying the author’s thinking is the special
To what extent is it reasonable to describe modern British prime ministers as presidents in all but name? Few, if any, now doubt that the office of prime minister dominates the British political system. As long as the holder of that office is not faced by too many limiting factors, such as a small parliamentary majority or a divided party, the British system has moved away from the traditional ‘cabinet government’ model to a ‘prime ministerial’ model. We argue that the system has now become ‘presidential’. * PMs perform most of the functions of a head of state: The prime minister has come to be, effectively though not legally, the head of State, the leader of the nation, irrespective of party allegiance.
It has been argued though, that we now have Prime Ministerial Government as opposed to Cabinet Government, due to the shift in power towards the Prime Minister over the years from Thatcher to Blair. More important than head of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister is the leader of the