Managers or Messiahs? Prime Ministerial Leadership and the Transition to Government

Abstract

The dichotomy between presidential and Westminster systems produces distinctive interpretations of governmental transitions in Anglophone democracies. When all significant executive positions fall to the winning party, as in the US, there must be more attention to the details of transition than is required for a change of government in a parliamentary system, where the permanent civil service assures some continuity. Thus, the literature on presidential transitions is more extensive, and more systematic, than that on prime ministerial change (Burke, 2000; Kumar and Sullivan, 2003). Yet, over nearly 40 years, as a modernization of the Westminster executive has been imposed by the necessities of rapid start-ups and decisive leadership in a globalizing world, aspirant prime ministers have increasingly focused on transition planning, in contrast to the ad hocery of the past.