Politics Review

• Presidential prime minister

  The idea that the position of the British PM and the US president are converging, with the PM rising above their party to become a significant political force in their own right
• Boris Johnson is frequently described as 'presidential'
• Margaret Thatcher was also often described as presidential
• Factors that give the UK PM substantial powers

  • The first-past-the-post voting system
  • Having a hereditary rather than an elected head of state
  • The UK's uncodified constitution
  • The UK being a unitary, not a federal country
• The British PM is not becoming presidential
• Since Blair, no British prime minister has been remotely presidential
• Some prime ministers are more powerful than others, but even the most powerful have periods of impotence and are pressured to leave office
• Cabinet decline


  The prime minister's office has effectively taken over as the key decision-making body, at the expense of the cabinet
• Cabinet revival

  The cabinet has seen a resurgence of its authority this century, as a reaction to major decisions being made by the PM and their close team rather than the full cabinet
• Any prime minister that attempts to ignore the cabinet will find that it comes back and bites him or her, hard
• Qualities of successful prime ministers

  • Clarity about what they want to do in office
  • Knowing how to make the existing system work for them
• Evidence suggests that the steady growth in the resources at the disposal of the prime minister has made the quality of ministers, and that of government decision-making, worse not better
• Monarchical influence

  The influence and impact of the monarch remains substantial, and should not be ignored when considering theories of modern-day prime ministerial predominance
• Ways the monarchy still matters

  • The nation looks to the monarch for reassurance in crises
  • The monarch commands far more favourable headlines than the PM
  • The monarch is regarded as the principal representative of the nation, not the PM
  • Foreign leaders are more impressed by meeting the monarch than the PM
  • The monarchy holds the union together
• Parliament still matters

  • Prime Minister's Questions remain a real test for the PM
  • The House of Lords has become a considerable irritation or block to the PM
  • Parliament reminds the PM that they are more than just the leader of London and southeast England
• The power of the prime minister is constantly changing, and this flux is what makes politics such a great subject to study