Essay/Term paper: The prime minister of great britain

Essay, term paper, research paper:  History Essays

The Prime Minister of Great Britain


There are a lot of political issues in Great Britain today. United
Kingdom is a large, industrialized democratic society and as such it has to have
politics and therefore political issues. One of those issues how should
executive branch work and whether the Prime Minister has too much power. Right
now in Great Britain there is a great debate on this issue and I am going to
examine it in detail. The facts I have used here are from different writings on
British politics which are all listed in my bibliography, but the opinions are
my own and so are the arguments that I used to support my views.
First let me explain the process through which a person becomes a Prime
Minister. The PM is selected by the sovereign. He (or she) chooses a man who
can command the support of majority of the members of the House of Commons.
Such a man is normally the leader of the largest party in the House. Where two
are rivals in a three party contest such as those which occurred in the 1920s he
is usually selected from the party which wins the greatest number of seats. The
Prime Minister is assumed to be the choice of his party and nowadays, so far as
he can be ascertained, participation of a monarch is a pure formality. Anyone
suggested for this highest political office obviously has to be a very smart and
willing individual, in fact it has been suggested that he be an "uncommon man of
common opinions"(Douglas V. Verney). Not all Prime Ministers fitted this bill
exactly, but every on of them had to pass one important test: day-to-day
scrutiny of their motives and behavior by fellow members of Parliament
before they were ultimately elected to the leadership of their party. Unlike
Presidents of the United States all Prime Ministers have served a long
apprenticeship in the legislature and have been ministers in previous Cabinets.
Many Presidents of our country have been elected and on many occasions they have
never even met some of their future co-workers, such as case of Kissinger and
Nixon who have never even met prior to Nixon's appointment.
Let's now examine the statutory duties and responsibilities of the Prime
Minister. Unlike the United States where the President's duties are
specifically written out in the Constitution, the powers of the Prime Minister
are almost nowhere spelled out in a statute. Unlike his fellow ministers he
does not receive the seals of office: he merely kisses the hands of the monarch
like an ambassador.
The Prime Minister has four areas of responsibilities. He is a head of
the Government; he speaks for the Government in the House of Commons; he is the
link between the Government and the sovereign; he is the leader of the nation.
He is chief executive, chief legislator and chief ambassador. As we can see the
PM has an wide range of powers, maybe too wide. As head of the Government the
Prime Minister has the power to recommend the appointment and dismissal of all
other ministers. Far from being merely first among equals, he is the dominant
figure. Ministers wait in the hall of PMs office on No.10 Dowling Street before
being called into the Cabinet room. He may himself hold other portfolios such
as that of Foreign Secretary(as did Lord Salisbury) or Minister of Defense(as
did Mr. Churchill). He has general supervision over all departments and
appoints both the Permanent Secretary and the Parliamentary Secretary. The
Cabinet office keeps a record of Cabinet decisions to make sure that PM has up
to date information. He controls the agenda which the office prepares for
Cabinet meetings. There is a smaller Prime Minister's Private Office which
consists of a principal private secretary and a half a dozen other staff drawn
from civil service. Perhaps owing to American influence the two offices are
becoming increasingly popular and there are signs that the Prime Minister is no
longer content to be aided by nonpolitical civil servants. There is little
doubt that if he chooses the PM can be in complete command of his Cabinet.
The PM must also give leadership in the House of Commons, though he
usually appoints a colleague as Leader of the House. He speaks for the
Government on important matters-increasingly, questions are directed to him
personally-and controls the business of the House through the Future Legislation
Committee of the Cabinet which he appoints mainly from the senior
nondepartamental ministers. Since the success of his legislative program
depends mainly on support of his party he must as a party leader attend to his
duties and ensure that the machinery of his party is working properly and in the
hands of men he could trust. Basically the PM controls his party and in essence
he controls the Parliament, but that is not all. The PM alone can request the
sovereign to dissolve the Parliament and call a new election, it is open to
debate whether it is this power to allow him the control of the party and the
Parliament. I agree with this argument completely because if the PM doesn't
like the way it is going with his party he can always announce new election so
the Parliament pretty much backs up whatever the PM proposes. This is my main
argument for this paper. In United Kingdom there is no system of checks and
balances like there is in United States. In UK the PM and the Cabinet make a
decision which is then almost blindly supported by the Parliament. A real
democracy cannot function this way where there is one person of power and the
rest can hardly do anything about it. Members of the majority party will not go
against the will of PM because it means going against the will of their own
party and that is unheard of in England, members of the opposing party cannot do
anything because they are a minority. The Queen herself is a figure-head and
does not have any real power. The PM is a link between the monarch and the
Government, he keeps the Queen aware of what goes on with the Cabinet, the
Government and the world at large. Although the Queen is a fictional figure and
has no real power she can damage the reputation of the Government and the entire
country by one careless word. It is the Prime Minister's responsibilities to
keep the monarch well informed. Other ministers however can only see the
monarch with the PMs permission (the monarch however can see whomever she
chooses). As we can see, here is another illustration of PM having too much
power. He basically has an exclusive relationship with the monarch and controls
who can see the Queen and who cannot. In US this is unthinkable, any
congressman can request an audience with the President if he wants and if let's
say the Chief of Staff wanted to limit that in any way then he would run into
some serious problems.
Finally the PM is the leader of the nation. In time of crisis the
people expect him to make an announcement and to appear on television.
Increasingly he should be a man who can not only secure the confidence of House
of Commons, but of the man in the street or rather the man in the armchair in
front of the television. Elections are ostensibly fought between two
individual parliamentary candidates, but in practice they are contests between
national parties which offer their own political and economical programs. The
parties convey an "image" to the nation through the voice and appearance of
their leaders. The Prime Minister must outshine his rival, the Leader of the
Opposition. In the 1964 election, when the Liberals doubled their vote, much
importance was attached to the TV performance of the Liberal leader, Jo Grismond.

The Head of State and traditional "symbol of the Nation" may be the
Queen and the Royals, but the chief executive is in reality the PM. It is to
his desk that ultimately all difficult problems come whether these involve
participation in NATO, the balance of payment crisis, the budget-or even the
royals' love affairs(as in 1936 and again in the 80's and 90's). It is the PM
that has to symbolize his country's policies abroad and it is he who must
personally convince political leaders in other countries that his Government can
be relied upon.
The Prime Minister is also chief legislator. Through the Future
Legislation Committee, he determines which bills the House of Commons will
discuss during the session, and can attach whatever importance he chooses to the
Immigration Bill or Steel Nationalization Bill. With few exceptions bills are
introduced in the House by the Government and if they are important they require
the backing of the Premier.
Also he is the chief administrator. Not only does he supervise the
departments and chair Cabinet meetings but he directs the Cabinet Office and the
Office of Prime Minister. In economic affairs he decides governmental strategy
in conjunction with his Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister of Economic
Affairs, if there is one, and leaves these ministers to implement his policies.
In defense policy he chairs the Defense Committee of the Cabinet, leaving the
details to the Secretary of Defense(Army, Navy and Air Force) and the Chiefs of
Staff. Foreign Affairs, normally the responsibility of the Foreign Secretary,
require the intervention of the PM when really important decisions have to be
made.
As we can see the PM is potentially a very powerful figure. Everything
depends on how he chooses to use this power and the success with which he
delegates some of his responsibilities.
All PMs have had an inner circle of ministers to which he turns when
quick decisions have to be taken. The more important departmental ministers
tend to be the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer; but these may not compose the inner circle of the given PM. Senior
ministers don't have to be the members of the inner circle. They usually are,
but not all the time. The Cabinet is usually as follows: the PM, three to six
inner circle members and the remainder of the Cabinet which number about fifteen.
I think it is obvious to see why the PM needs an inner circle. In United
States for example the President can approve the appointment of a person to a
high political position without having ever met him/her. In Britain this would
sound ridiculous, all major political figures know each other for years having
probably gone to same schools together. The Brits believe that good friends
make good decision makers which to me sounds very reasonable. This fact can be
viewed from two different perspectives: some people say that when a new PM is
elected he usually appoints all his friends to high positions by doing this he
creates an inner clique with which he governs as an absolute ruler, the
opposing view says that you need to know your colleagues for years in order to
successfully work with them. Both views have a point and this is a very hot
topic in British politics right now. Personally I thin