The Prime Minister and the Cabinet: Managing the System

Abstract

The Prime Minister has some choice about the persons and locations of decision making in the Cabinet system. He or she may use the full Cabinet, a Cabinet Committee, a ministerial group, or bilateral or simply informal consultation, perhaps by telephone. The participants may include officials, personal advisers and friends, as well as ministers. The process may be consultation (tell me what you think), discussion (let us together clarify and advance our joint thinking), collective decision making (we will together make up our minds), or simple communication of a prime ministerial proposal or decision (this is what I think we should do, or this is what we shall do). Within this range the Prime Minister has some freedom to choose a decision mode, subject to the constitutional and political constraints of the Cabinet collective. In practice, prime ministers seem to mix their modes and slip from one to another, and not always with forethought, confidence and grace. Both Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher encountered criticism from their colleagues as well as resignations, partly in protest at less than collegial modes of decision making.