Ministers; their backgrounds and roles.

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Minsters; their backgrounds and roles.

Explain the two roles of a minister

First of all they have their MP role. Such as constituency duty and to a representative for that particular region. This includes speaking in the House of Commons. This also includes Cabinet responsibilities if they are senior party figures. Arguing for any issues that need their input. Departmental issues.

Their second role is Whitehall duties. As they are heads of Whitehall. They monitor what is been done and to make sure they are all working to a high standard. Taking responsibly for their civil servants

Limitations of a Minster’s power

  • Outnumbered by their senior officials (usually 6 or 7 to 1).
  • Permanency is an issue. Their time in office is a unbelievable 2 years.
  • They’re knowledge on certain things will not be great. No knowledge of departments work so no clear objectives and priorities taking over.
  • Maybe thy have too much responsibility. Cabinet, Parliament, the media and the European Union. In fact 65% of their work is not based around departmental work.
  • Rely too much on what others tell them. They talk about information fed to them rather than their own research. Leaks could happen to embarrass for the minister.
  • People have been on the job for a long time may have ‘loopholes’ too delay certain laws. So it’s harder to implement law.
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The relationship of ministers and civil servants, who dominates?

Explain Theakston’s four models of the relations between civil servants and ministers.

The Formal Constitutional Model - That the civil servants should provide information that the Ministers need and remain non-political. This allows the 3 principles to be maintained. Anonymity, neutrality and permanence. This is highly theoretical.

The Adversarial Model - It suggests that it’s a struggle for power and Control. Richard Crossman and Tony Benn raised a point that the Civil Service is obstructing the Government’s policy programme.  Benn said they have their own agenda, Thatcher said ...

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