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British Cultural Studies (Subject) / The government (Lesson)

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• Introduction - members of the government known as ministers - twenty ppl in the cabinet = most of them are heads of the government departments - single party government = all members of the government belong to the same political party --> helped to establish the tradition known as collective responsibility (every member shares responsibility)  - coalitition government = bad idea / involves several parties --> in the 20th cent britain had 21 years (1915-1922 & 1931-145)  - no member of the government can criticize government policy in public 
• The cabinet - leading politicans in the governing party become members of the cabinet  - tied to government policy by convention of collective responsibility  - once a week = cabinet meets and takes decisions about new policies, implementation of existin policies, running of various government departments - cabinet office = help run the government , runs a busy communications network (ministers in touch & drawing up the agenda for cabinet meetings) / does the same thing for cabinet committees - cabinet committees = appointed by the cabinte to look into various matter in more detail 
• the prime minister - position is in direct contrast to the monarch position - PM has a lot of power - leader of the party with the largest # of MPs - PM = first among equals (primus inter pares) --> other ministers are not that powerful / several reasons --> 1.) monarchs power of patronage are actually the PMs power / cabinet reshuffle - change cabinet frequently (every 2 years) --> 2.) a PMs dominance over other ministers is the power of the public image  --> 3.) all ministers expect the PM are kept busy looking after their government departments / cabinet office is directly under the PMs control
• the civil service - not many ppl in a british government - day to day running of the government and the implementation of its policy continue in the hands of the same ppl that were with the previous government = the civil service - unknown to larger public - a career - possible to exercise quite a lot of control over their ministers  - start to loose influence --> ministers appoint experts from outside to work on various projects - reputation = absolute political impartiality
• local government - local government authorities only have power becaus the central government has given them power / only exist because of the central government - system of local governments is same as it is nationally  - elected representatives = councillors (MP) - meet in a council chamber in the town hall of county hall (parliament)  - make policy which is implented by local government officers (civil servants) - not a lot of ppl vote in local government elections  - more dealings with local than national government - local = manage most public services, employ 3x as many ppl as the national government - trend towards greater conrtol from central government  - local authorities can now have a directly elected major = still treated with suspicion to lay all power in one hand - local government services = public hiygiene, environmental health inspection, rubbish collection, cleaning and tidying of public places, provision of public swimming pools, sports centres, public parks, public libraries 

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