ELTE, AME-121, Cabinet and Civil Services in the UK, notes
by UNKNOWN author
The Cabinet- Can destroy, set up, merge ministries
- Cabinet members have a packing order. Some of them are more equal than the others.
- Secretaries: Home secretary, Foreign secretary (Jack Straw foreign minister). Foreign secretary receives 1.5Billion pounds/year, some others get as much as 70Billion.
- Cabinet members meet once a week or so and have a session with tea and biscuits.
- Cabinet members are picked for political loyalty and expertise.
- Routine items: what questions will come up for debating in the parliament. The Cabinet decides what should happen to departments (eg. If the energy dept. and another dept have a fight, the Cabinet discusses the important issues). Emergency issues: the Cab. comes together and discusses how to deal with the emergency.
- Cabinet members are assembled by the cabinet
committees. Half an hour per week or so. Ad hoc committees: temporary committees for specific purposes
Cabinet Office:- Five Major Departments:
- Economy
- Social and domestic issues
- Overseas and defence issues
- European matters (EU and related)
- Joint intelligence issues
- They all have three major tasks
- To serve the cabinet (Write suggestions, recommendations, etc)
- Coordinate the activities of the cabinet. Supervising an implementation (if it comes into force or not)
Civil services: 5000-6000 people > higher before 1979, but all over the world the government believes in smaller governments. Margaret Thatcher cut CS by 30%.
* Traditional Public Administration Model: The minister, the dept. issues orders, and the civil service carries them out
* Liberal Model: Acknowledges the first one (the dept. sets the agenda),
* Whitehall-Village Model: Important issues are decided by the civil
servants.
* Power Block Model: If the civil service wants to do it, it does it, if not, then not. They can overrule the department. (Jack Straw relies on the civil servants)
* Conservatives – Bureaucratic Oversupply Model: If you have fewer people between the experts and the decision makers, the speed between them is better
Civil servants:* Permanency
* Expertise
* Control the information (the PM and the ministers have lots of other things to do).
* Big Preparation for Office (sent from one office to the other without preparation, they rely entirely on the civil service)