Politics course work - Essay Example

The main principles of the cabinet government are as follows. The monarch (Queen Elizabeth II) has the power to appoint or dismiss any ministers to the government, although this is usually done ‘on the advice of the Prime Minister’ (Heyward, 2008, p20), meaning that the monarch has very little political influence. When these changes are made, this is referred to as a reshuffle, something which generally happens on a yearly basis. The cabinet are generally chosen from the current Prime Minister’s own political party, with the shadow cabinet – those who hold a corresponding role to those in the cabinet – being formed of the official opposition (the largest non-Governmental party, currently the Labour Party) (Heyward, 2008, p17).

The various titles and duties held by the members of the cabinet (and the corresponding shadow cabinet) change depending on the demands of the UK population and the views of the currently elected premier. The currently appointed cabinet government have weekly meetings to discuss potential and actual policy changes. These weekly meetings have ensured that the Institute of Government see the cabinet government as having a reduced capacity as a decision-making body (Blick & Jones, 2010, p97) due to their infrequency and short length.

Despite this, however, it is the cabinet that makes policy decisions and thus hold all responsibility for these decisions. The various ministers and secretaries within the cabinet must exhibit public support for the decisions made for the government and all policy choices must be made collectively. In practise, many decisions can be and are delegated to the sub-committees of the cabinet, such as education, who carry out all research, present findings and seriously influence the final choice of the governmental cabinet (Heyward, 2008, p14).

As previously mentioned, the cabinet is generally chosen from members of the current Governmental party, such as the Labour Party under Tony Blair (Kavanagh et al., 2006, pp32-34). The current Governmental party is chosen using the first-past-the-post system – the party with the most seats gains power, despite how many votes they may have in total. This system requires that the winning party holds at least 326 seats in Parliament to hold a majority, or else a hung parliament will occur. In the event of a hung parliament, it is necessary to create a coalition government of two or more political parties so that the total number of seats held by these parties totals at least 326.

In the case of the 2010 elections, the Conservative Party won 306 seats and formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, who won 57 seats, giving a total of 363 seats. The shadow cabinet is thus formed from members of the Labour Party, who hold a total number of 258 seats (BBC News, 2010). The creation of this coalition government means that the current cabinet is formed from members of both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. There are 18 cabinet ministers or secretaries from the Conservative Party and 5 from the Liberal Democrats (BBC News, 2010).

This ratio must be maintained throughout Cameron’s premiership – if a Liberal Democrat leaves cabinet, another must be appointed in their place (Daily Telegraph, 2010). The traditional role of Prime Minister has also been affected – David Cameron currently holds the office, but Nick