Executive Power
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“The office of the British prime minister holds a concentration of formal power greater than that of almost any other country in the developed world.” Not the most startling conclusion in the world, and one that probably crops up on most student essays about the premiership. But here’s what follows - “In contrast, the fragmentation and lack of co-ordination at the centre of the civil service — the Treasury, No 10 and the Cabinet Office — leads to an administrative centre that is relatively weak. This curious situation has created a strategic gap at the heart of British government which inhibits the ability to set overall government priorities and translate them into action.” These quotes are from an Institute for Government report that has been flagged up in the Sunday Times.
The report - at least from the extracts printed by the Sunday Times - looks like a valuable assessment of the role of the prime minister and the state of the executive machine today. It is given added weight by having been apparently produced from a large number of civil servant responses about how they see government performing. Cut out the political slant obviously provided by the newspaper, and what you get is a picture of a still very powerful No. 10 unit, whose strengths and weaknesses are then reflected throughout the Whitehall system. The report also seems to suggest that the Treasury has become a wide-ranging and powerful department that has, however, removed itself too far from its main strategic role - the control of public spending. This throws insight on how that naturally influential department has fared after a decade of control by an extremely powerful Chancellor who then moved across to No. 10. The style of government that the report comments on - control from No. 10 - has been evident under most recent prime ministers, but the focus has been thrown onto the nature of the individuals who control No. 10, with Gordon Brown being portrayed as a centralising figure who is failing to communicate a strategic vision to the rest of the Whitehall apparatus. Politicians and academics will be debating the conclusions of this report with vigour. Meanwhile, we have no real clue as to how Team Cameron will alter the balance of power, if at all, should they gain election themselves. The suspicion must be that any changes will be ones of governmental style (more communication outwards to the Whitehall departments for instance) rather than any perceptible reigning in of No. 10 power.
Certainly, this should be essential reading for the AS students needing to keep up to date on how the executive runs!
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