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The eighteenth century was long deemed ‘the classical age of the constitution’ in Britain, with cabinet government based on a two-party system of Whigs and Tories in Parliament, and a monarchy whose powers had been emasculated by the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689. This study furthers the work of Sir Lewis Namier, who, in 1929, argued that no such party system existed, George III was not a cypher, and that Parliament was an administration composed of factions and opposition. George III is a high-profile and well-known character in British history, whose policies have often been blamed for the loss of Britain's American colonies, around whom rages a perennial dispute over his aims: was he seeking to restore royal power or merely exercising his constitutional rights? This is a chronological survey of the first ten years of his reign through power politics and policy making.
have been intimations of the unintended consequences of devolution in its early years. The Scottish dimension to politics has been enhanced; the SNP now looks more secure than ever before and for the first time has become Scotland’s first party. Though the Scottish Office’s responsibilities were the basis of devolved government, the crucial added dimension of an elected Parliament has ensured that that policy-making no longer operates within the framework of British Cabinet government but in response to the authoritative choices of a representative Scottish
controls far weaker than those originally intended by the founders of the State. Contrary to the intentions of the 1922 Constitution’s drafters, a more or less textbook Westminster system prevailed.53 Legal rules were soon amended to more accurately reflect this political reality. Thus e.g., extern ministers were eliminated by a combination of constitutional amendments and political practice in 1927. The possibility of voter-initiated constitutional amendments was ended in 1928. Thus “the ‘un-British’ institutions were shed within five years, and cabinet government in
presidential style. In his book The Hubris Syndrome (2007), Lord Owen suggests that both politicians had succumbed to a ‘syndrome’ or form of ‘illness’ whereby they believed their judgement superior to that of all others, even close advisers. He argues that Blair effectively undermined the system of Cabinet government and substituted personal rule, especially on foreign affairs. Deputy Prime Minister There is no constitutional basis for this post but several Prime Ministers have found it useful to invent it, usually for party political reasons. Geoffrey Howe was made
‘important aspects of Government policy … knowledge of these matters should be confined to those, whether Ministers or officials, whose duty it is to assist in the formation of the particular policy concerned’. 12 In the field of atomic energy, the need for secrecy ‘overrode the claims of Cabinet government’ and a series of momentous decisions were taken by Attlee’s secret sub-committee GEN 75, the Cabinet
This approach to governance also had significant implications for the role of the Cabinet in decisionmaking regarding Iraq during 2002–3. Where the consent of particular ministers was required, it was sought in informal discussions away from the full Cabinet, what came to be termed Blair’s “sofa diplomacy.” It is this alternative source of advice and bypassing of Cabinet government that Secretary of
project in a particular direction. Second, despite the disparity of electoral systems and the frequency of coalition government in Ireland, the political executives in both countries are unified constitutionally and are relatively politically homogeneous, giving rise to a predominance of strong, stable and ideologically unified governments. Third, as a microcosm of the Westminster/Whitehall model, the Irish political system is characterised by cabinet government and parliamentary sovereignty, while the civil service maintains a professional, apolitical ethos displaying
emergency reveals that some of the challenges faced in Northern Ireland were not unique.18 A detailed study of government policy in Northern Ireland also has much to offer post-war British historiography. Richard Crossman claimed in 1963 that the post-war epoch saw ‘the final transformation of Cabinet Government into Prime Ministerial Government’ and likened this system to ‘voluntary totalitarianism’.19 This view has been too readily adopted. While Harold Wilson and James Callaghan did at times make important contributions, the argument presented here is that the views of
the elite world for the purpose of allowing the elites to ‘relate themselves and the classes which they represent to those over whom they exercise hegemony’ (Rex, 1974 : 216). One such example of this would be that of trade union leader Vic Feather. From being a working-class union official, Feather attained the position of General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in 1969 and in 1974 was made a life peer. The acceptance by the Labour Party of all the conventions in respect of the office of Prime Minister and Cabinet government
chaprassi (menial servant). He knew that as Chief Minister of Gujarat state, Modi had run a one-man government in which other ministers were ciphers, and he expected him to do the same in New Delhi. He was right. Cabinet government is a fiction. The Prime Minster is utterly dominant. Ministers learn what their policies are from their civil servants, who receive instructions from the Prime Minister's Office. No senior leader in the party can check Modi. Nor can Parliament, which has also been undermined. During his first term (2014–19), only 26% of