A* Grade A-Level Politics Notes Edexcel - PM and the Executive
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Course
Paper 2
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
Very detailed notes on the 2022 A-Level advanced information for the Prime Minister and the Executive topic in Paper 2 of the course. The notes include case studies, tables of arguments that can be used in essay planning, and overall necessary knowledge that earned me an A* in the 2022 exams.
Prime Minister and the Executive Notes
3.1 The structure, role and powers of the executive
• It’s structure including the PM, the cabinet, junior ministers and government departments
• It’s main roles, including proposing legislation, proposing a budget and making policy decisions
within laws and budget
• The main powers of the executive, including royal prerogative powers, initiation of legislation and
secondary legislative power
Parliamentary government:
Parliament supposedly holds the executive to account and can dismiss then on a vote of no
con dence e.g. 1979 Callaghan government.
+ Brown announced a future programme of constitutional reform which parliament defeated
- Blairs labour party dominated parliament through FPTP, while the Lisbon treaty 2007 and HRA
further constrain parliament.
Cabinet government
Theory that cabinet dominates parliament and the cabinet as whole resigns on the loss of a vote
of no con dence - shown in the cabinets in uence in the downfall of Thatcher and Blair
+ The cabinet on the whole resigns in the events of a successful vote of no con dence whilst the
prime minister can be seen as the member of cabinet with more authority - fall o thatcher due
to lack of support within cabinet
- On the whole the cabinet is not in charge and the executive can reshu e the cabinet and ll it
with its own supporters. E.g. Brown conducted a broad reshu e upon becoming prime minister
to maintain the loyalty of key Blairites such as David Miliband who he promoted to foreign
secretary.
Prime ministerial/presidential government
The view from Labour statesmen and academic Richard Crossman that Britain is no longer a
cabinet government as the PM frequently bypasses it when making decisions and is clearly more
powerful than the other cabinet members.
+ Recent PM’s have implied that they are more like a US president (forming cabinets on their own)
e.g. Blair and Thatcher make this view plausible
- Critics would point to the fall of both Blair and Thatcher and the less dominant reign of leaders
such as Major as evidence of its weakness, also the cabinet takes collective responsibility if
there is a vote of no con dence.
Core executive/Kitchen Cabinet
Refers to the smaller body of decision makers who take overall responsibility for the direction and
coordination of government policy at the apex of government power. It covers the complex web
of institutions, networks and practices surrounding the PM.
+ Under Blair most policy was not made by the cabinet but by bilateral meetings with key
ministers (Brown and Alister Campbell), the cabinet were largely kept in the dark. Under
Cameron ‘the quad’ have always been the key policy makers.
- Critics would point to the fall of Blair and the important role played by the cabinet which Brown
was part of.
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,Structure of Executive - including the PM, the cabinet, junior ministers and
government departments
Structure of the executive
Executive = one of the three branches of government standing alongside the legislature and the
judiciary. The role of the legislature is to pass or con rm laws, it is the job of the executive to
execute these laws and ensure they happen.
- Branch of government responsible for making policy decisions, taking action and running the
country
- Parliamentary sovereignty means that the executive must seek parliamentary approval and
answer to parliament
- The executive can be seen as the dominant branch in UK gov and it is responsible for
determining policy and making it a reality - especially true when the PM has a large majority
The executive branch (the core executive) is composed of;
1. The prime minister - appointed by monarch (now democratically) and head of executive
2. The cabinet - senior people in the executive mostly made up of senior ministers who are
responsible for running government departments like the home o ce, and making policy
decisions. Members are appointed by the prime minister.
3. Junior ministers - members of the executive who assist the senior ministers in the running
and policy decisions of a government department. For example, the education secretary will
have three junior ministers each one taking responsibility for an aspect of education policy.
They are also appointed by the prime minister but not part of the cabinet.
4. The civil service - permanent o cials who carry out the day-to-day running of government
departments. They advise the ministers to enact policy decisions made by ministers but do
not make policy decisions themselves as they dot answer to parliament or the people.
Members of the civil service are expected to act neutrally and therefore are not allowed to be
members of a political party and can only help with government and not party work.
Many of the organs of the executive are described as being under the control of the monarch e.g.
Her Majesty’s ministers or Her Majesty’s treasury. However, in practice the executive branch is
under the control the prime minister (and cabinet) using powers of royal prerogative (a set of
powers and privileges belonging to the monarch but normally excessed by the prime minister or
cabinet such as granting of honours or legal pardons).
• By convention, the prime minister, members of cabinet and all junior ministers must be
members of parliament - either HOC or HOL.
• This means the executive is compromised of about 120 MP’s and peers (since 2019 gure has
been 116 in total - 92 MP’s and 24 peers) who are obliged to support parliament.
• However, the total number of people who in uence the executive would total at around 4000
• The civil service in contrast are not supposed to serve a political purpose and in recent years
there has been growth of special advisors known as (SpAds) who are employed as civil
servants but have the role of giving political advice to a minister.
• Although it is still the minister that makes the decision, if a special advisor appears to
be shaping policy their position can be questioned.
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, • E.g. Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill who were employed as joint chief of sta by Theresa
May in 2016 took charge of the 2017 general election campaign for the conservatives,
writing their manifesto despite being employed as civil servants. The pair were forced
to resign in 2017 after ‘political failure’.
• E.g. Dominic Cummins was employed as chief of sta by Johnson and led his election
campaign in 2019 abs appeared to be making decisions about policy rather than
o ering neutral advice - forced to resign late 2020
Structure of the executive
Key individual or body Role Supporting elements
Prime minister Chief policy maker and chief executive - Cabinet
- Cabinet secretary
- Private o ce of civil servants
- Policy unit
Cabinet Approving policy and settling disputes - Cabinet committees
within government departments - Cabinet o ce
- Cabinet secretary
Treasury Managing the government nances - Senior civil servants
- Special advisers
- Think tanks
Government Developing and implementing specialised - Civil servants
departments policies - Special advisors
- Think tanks
Roles of the Executive - including proposing legislation, proposing a budget and
making policy decisions within laws and budget
- The main role of the executive is to govern and ensure the country operates e ciently and to
do so making decisions and coming up with ideas either as part of wider policy objectives
outlined in manifesto or in reaction to global events as they unfold.
Proposing legislation
- The executive develops legislative proposals for a rst reading in parliament based on the
policy decisions of the ministers and the expert advice of the civil service
- Public bills - usually pass through without much obstruction, especially if have a majority gov
Proposing a budget
- The executive is required to calculate a budget to calculate how much money will be needed to
run a country and carry out the proposed policies
- The executive works out how much income it will receive from taxes, duties, investments and
loans by making a guess on how the economy will perform, they will then calculate how much
to spend on each government department.
- 2020 budget; Freeze on income tax, $5 billion emergency response for NHS + covid
services, expected economic growth of 1.1% and in ation of 1.4%, scrapping 5% tampon
tax, government borrowing £14.6 billion more than previously estimated.
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