Prime Minister of British Government

The purpose of this research is to examine the office of the Prime Minister of the British government. A historical background on the development of the office will be presented, together with an assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.

In comparison with that of the heads of other modern states, the job of the Prime Minister of Great Britain is relatively vague. As chairman of the governing Cabinet of ministers, he has been called a primus inter pares (first among equals.) Nonetheless, as Winston Churchill said, "There can be no comparison between the positions of number one and numbers two, three and four" (Rose 54). This ambiguity stems from the fact that the office of prime minister evolved from pragmatic political practice over centuries, rather than from a constitutionally formulated theory.

In feudal England, governmental ministers were either the personal servants or the hand-chosen advisers of the sovereign. As constitutional influences began to assert themselves after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, however, the monarchs found it increasingly difficult to rule through their ministers unless they were able to command the support of Parliament. It therefore became necessary for sovereigns to choose their ministers, not according to their whim or preference, but from among the dominant party of Parliament (White & Hussey 93).

By the early eighteenth century, the leading ministers had combined to form the Cabinet Council, which eventually replaced the un

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a ministerial resignation on the grounds that it represents, not a repudiation of his personal leadership, but a failure on the part of the minister to convince the Cabinet as a whole of the rightness of his position. The power invested in the Cabinet confers upon the English government the character of a collective rule. The Prime Minister stands at the apex of this rule with his principal duty being to reconcile it with the individual responsibility of the ministers to Parliament (Smith 98). In this sense, he acts as a mediator between the ministries, which actually execute policy, and the Parliament, which must shape it. Though the Prime Minister has no veto power over Cabinet decisions as, for example, the American President does, he can influence them through his control of the agenda and through his duty to summarize and formulate Cabinet discussions. No votes are taken at these discussions; rather, matters are debated and a consensus derived which is made to represent the will of the Cabinet. Thus, in the very course of Cabinet discussions, a Prime Minister's views may change or be modified to accord with the collective view, for only in this way may he retain the confidence of his Cabinet upon which his authority r

Category: Government - P