Also, party support for the Prime Minister’s legislation is usually quite reliable, although this is not conditional, and depends greatly on the popularity of a specific Prime Minister with their party. The Prime Minister’s power is also limited by threats of leadership challenges should that Prime Minister reach very low levels of popularity from disgruntled MPs or ministers.
Overall, the Prime Minister has a wide support base due to their majority, but this can be impacted by the size of that majority or the popularity of the Prime Minister at the time, which can vary the level of that inherent power.
The Prime Minister’s position as the head of the government also invests them with more inherent power, in that as the head of government they and they alone are able to form a Cabinet of ministers of the various government departments. This grants them with the ability to craft a Cabinet in their ideological image, out of ministers who would provide the least amount f political opposition to legislation that the Prime Minister proposes. This allows for the rewarding of supporters of the Prime Minister and the penalisation of any political adversaries who may have challenged the Prime Minister.
However, this ability to select Cabinet ministers has several short fallings which place limits upon the Prime Minister’s powers. Firstly, it is unlikely that a Prime Minister will opt not to include senior party figures or other influential figures who may become disgruntled by non-selection or pose serious risk to the Prime Minister in a leadership contest and claim office due to their high standing in the Party; the Prime Minister would rather keep these potential loose cannons on side to ensure they are not presented with serious leadership issues later on. This can be shown in the Labour leadership contest of 1994, where Gordon Brown conceded defeat to Tony Blair on the condition of a senior Cabinet position in any resulting government and the leadership crown should Blair resign. Also, the Labour party has been limited to being forced to pick its first Cabinet after a period in opposition from its Shadow Cabinet after re-election, which places limits on the choice the Prime Minister can make; the Conservatives are free to choose Cabinet Ministers as they please whenever they please.
The Prime Minister also has power in that they can choose to dismiss cabinet ministers, which grants them power as they can choose to dispense with the services of disloyal or underperforming minsters, who may be rebelling against the Prime Minister’s personal or political issues or may be ineffective in running their department as the Prime Minister may want. This allows the Prime Minister to re-organise their cabinet, either to increase its efficiency or to remould it to better suit their image in government. This process is known as a cabinet reshuffle. An example of a cabinet reshuffle that removed an underperforming Minister was in 2006, where Home Secretary Charles Clark was sacked following numerous Home Office scandals and blunders, and also tough media opposition which made his position untenable.
The Prime Minister also has the resource of being a substantial figure of public standing. This allows them to craft media attention tot heir own will, and this adds power to them, because they can manipulate the media if they so desire to give them a better image, and ergo higher popularity. However, this may backfire; bad publicity can severely damage the credibility and power of a Prime Minister in the public eye.
The Prime Minister, because of their public standing, is able to also get views and policies across to the public quickly and easily, which is a benefit when campaigning for more controversial issues.
The Prime Minister also has the effect in the media of personifying whatever party they lead. This has both positive and negative effects. Positively, this can help in associating a party to a particular Prime Minister, which ads power to the Prime Minister as it allows for recognition in the public eye. Likewise, a poorly performing and unpopular Prime Minister may drag their associated party with them, reducing their potential power. An example of this can be the 2003 Iraq war, whose interpreted failure undermined the public standing of Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Finally, the Prime Minister has one final resource available to further furnish their powers: the Prime Minister’s Office, which has grown in importance over the last two decades. This is because the Prime Minister heads no government department, and is therefore unrestricted in where they are able to direct their political energies. The Prime Minister’s Office can offer additional, alternate sources of advice on issues being discussed which can be different to that presented by ministers, handles the public image of the Prime Minister and manages relations with media agencies. This all aids the Prime Minister in performing their duties, and therefore adds to their power, as the Prime Minister can shape his Office to perform toward their own political agenda.
In conclusion, the resources available to the Prime Minister – the powers of patronage, party leadership, public standing and the Prime Minister’s Office - do invest them with significant powers which help them in running the government of the country.
Government and Politics
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