Chapter 14 Executives

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Chapter 14Executives

• Guy Peters

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Executives

• Types of Executive System
• Cabinet Government
• Semi-Presidential Government
• The Public Bureaucracy
• Politicians and Bureaucrats
• Problems in Executive Governance

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Introduction

• European governments are executive democracies
• Bureaucracy has become more powerful over time
• Most European governments are also divided
  governments

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Types of Executive Systems

• Most common form parliamentary government
• Cabinet
• Individual ministers responsible for ministries
• Alternative form semi-presidentialism
• Prime minister elected president
• Division of executive powers

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Cabinet Government

• Formed by MPs
• One member of cabinet is PM
• De facto shift in power from parliament to
  executive
• Parliamentarians dont want to risk another
  general election
• Executives can control agenda
• Executives have public bureaucracy as key
  resource
• Increased role for media favours elite profile

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Cabinets

• Types of ministries
• Central agencies
• Defining functions
• Economic functions
• Social functions
• New ministries
• Cabinets are becoming smaller
• Centralization of power around the PM

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Semi-Presidential Government

• PM and president have different policy
  responsibilities
• Government becomes problematic if PM and
  president are from different parties
• Popular form of government in central and eastern
  Europe

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The Public Bureaucracy

• Factors differentiating between types of
  bureaucracy
• Role of law in training/decision-making
• Inter-relation between politics and
  administration
• Linkage with civil society
• Emphasis on uniformity

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Politicians and Bureaucrats

• Politicians have legitimacy but lack skills
• This creates potential for administrators to run
  ministries
• Possible solutions
• Reduce ministers workload
• Increase extra-bureaucracy advice
• Reduce work loads on ministries

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Problems in Executive Governance

• Coordination
• Accountability
• New Public Management may have exacerbated some
  of these problems
• Intra-government division