Compare and contrast the extent to which the Cabinet has an important part to play in the respective Executives of the UK and USA.

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2002

C) Compare and contrast the extent to which the Cabinet has an important part to play in the respective Executives of the UK and USA.

The extent to which the Cabinet has an important part to play in the executives of the UK and USA can be assessed by looking at what is suppose to be the case in theory of the role of the Cabinet’s within the Executives and what they actually are in practices.

In the UK the entire Cabinet is collectively suppose to make decisions and decide on policy. The Prime Minister originally was the Chair of Cabinet meetings, and ‘Primus Inter Pares’, meaning first among equals. Many will argue however that this is not the case in practice as the PM in recent decades has developed a ‘Presidential style’ of governing, and a singular executive, similar to that of the President of the United States. The President of the U.S. has ‘ministers’ to advise him, in other words a Cabinet, however he is suppose to over see everything and make decisions, and policy by himself/herself.

The fact that the Cabinet in the UK is drawn from the legislature means that it has a major role to play in the legislature, not least in the organisation of legislation. The PM however some would claim has been seen to override the rights of the Cabinet and thus lower the importance of the Cabinet while making decisions on legislation and policy in recent years. This was seen in the Thatcherite era when on average she only held 35 Cabinet meetings per annum and carried out ‘Kitchen Cabinet’ meetings in which she pre-cooked ideas with individual ministers before the actual full Cabinet meeting and steam rollered their decision and policy through the Cabinet meetings, this was due to the fact that Ministers were too involved in their own departments to worry about other one’s, especially after there wasn’t much to be discussed because the PM and individual Minister had already decided policy/decision.

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The U.S. Executive due to it been singular in nature, means the President is responsible for decisions and policy, including the executives role in legislation making. However infact the President is not suppose to have any role in legislation as “all legislative powers” were given to the Congress in Article 1, Section 1, however the President has been able to claim a legislative role through the duties of the President outlined in Article 2, section 2, which include the fact he can recommend measures which he considers to be “necessary and expedient” in nature to Congress. This is unlike ...

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