The Role of British Prime Minister - Essay Example

The role of British Prime Minister The British Prime Minister serves as the head of government in the United Kingdom. He heads the cabinet, which is comprised of various ministers, serving as the heads of different departments of the government (Blick & Jones, 2010 p54). Thus, the British Prime Minister and the cabinet head the government, and are accountable for all policies and actions that the government takes. They are answerable to the monarch, the British Parliament and by extension to the public at large. The position of the British Prime Minister is an appointed role, where by the Queen appoints one of the members of parliament that have been directly elected by the people, to serve as the Prime Minister (Bennister, 2012 p40). Nevertheless, the individual who is appointed to this position must enjoy the support of the majority in the parliament, especially the lower house of the British legislature, also referred to as the House of Commons. This is because, the House of Commons is charged with the responsibility of enacting the necessary legislations that runs the government and the whole country. Therefore, the prime minister must enjoy the support of the majority in the House of Commons, so that he can be supported in enacting the necessary legislations and policies, which runs the government (Hennessy, 2001 p17). The most important aspect of the position of the British Prime Minister is the fact that; this position is not established by the British constitutional laws, but is just guided by the conventions, which have been in place for a long-term. The British Prime Minister plays various roles. First, he is the head of the political party or the coalition of parties that have the majority members of parliament in the House of Commons, and thus plays a legislative role (Kavanagh & Seldon, 2008 p87). He is responsible for guiding the legislation of the policies that favors the running of the government, as well as those necessary to execute the objectives and manifestos of the party or coalition enjoying the majority in the parliament. This position evolved as a result of the long term historical struggle to shift power from the sovereign to the parliament. However, constitutionally and legally, the monarch still remains the head of government, who enjoys the prerogative powers and is thus responsible for the whole running of the country. Therefore, the position of the British Prime Minister is political, which occurs as a result of the monarch sharing his/her powers to head the government with an individual of his/her choice, who enjoys the confidence of many members of parliament (Blick & Jones, 2010 p62). Despite the immense political authority that the position of the British Prime Minister holds, it is merely an extension of the powers of the Sovereign, who is the legal and constitutional leader of the government (King, 1985 p257). As the head of the party of the majority in parliament, the British Prime Minister is responsible to oversee the formulation and passing of the necessary legislations, which are essential to see the government operate effectively. In this sense therefore, the British Prime Minister heads the policy and law formulation process, to ensure that the laws and the policies that are formulated are in line with the government intentions and objectives, thus serves to facilitate the performance of the government (Hennessy, 2001 p21). This remains the reason as to why the British Prime Minister must be the leader of the party or coalition that enjoys majority support. The other role of the British Prime Minister is the executive role. The British Prime Minister is the head of the cabinet, which is the executive arm of the government (Kavanagh & Seldon, 2008 p84). The power of the British Prime Minister as the head of the executive arm of the government includes the powers to constitute the cabinet. Therefore, he is responsible for appointing the cabinet ministers, who in turn heads different departments of the government (Blick & Jones, 2010 p67). Additionally, he wields the power of dismissing any of the appointed cabinet ministers, in case such ministers fail to perform as per the expectations, or in case there are other reasons that hinder the ministers from executing their roles of heading their respective departments effectively. Additionally, under his executive functions, the British Prime Minister is charged with the responsibility of coordinating all the activities of different government departments and their functions, while also acting as the head of the civil service (King, 1985 p266). Another fundamental role played by the British Prime Minister is that of the government’s spokesman. The British Prime Minister acts as the face of the United Kingdom’s government, both domestically and internationally, through giving the United Kingdom’s government position, regarding various issues that are of importance to the society, both domestically and internationally (Hennessy, 2001 p22). The last of the functions of the British Prime Minister is that of advisory. The British Prime Minister is responsible for advising the sovereign on various issues regarding the government, the statutory and the prerogative duties, which are solely within the powers of the sovereign to execute. Through the advice of the prime minister, the sovereign then undertakes various appointments to different judicial, political and Church of England’s positions (Hennessy, 2001 p24). The role of the media in British politics The media has become a relatively powerful political player in Britain, as compared to many other countries. The media can either build or destroy the political careers of various political players in Britain (Nther, 2011 p12). Therefore, the Media plays the role of disseminating the political ideology of different individuals to the general public, who are the determinants of the fate of any given politician. By playing the ideology dissemination role, to the public, the British media informs the electorate on various principles by which different politicians are campaigning for the political seats, enabling the electorate to make an informed choice, whenever it come to the election time (Negrine, 2013 p16). This way, the media can easily build the political career of any individual politician by raising their profile and image in the eyes of the electorate, making it easier for the electorate to elect such leaders. Conversely, the media can damage the image of an individual politician, through projecting their weaknesses to the electorate, making the electorate lose confidence in the politician, and thus fail to elect him/her. Thus, the British media has become such a powerful political player, that the politicians have to maintain a friendly relationship with the media, to enhance the security of their positions (Nther, 2011 p33). The other important role of the media in British politics is that; it plays the role of determining what information is newsworthy and which one is not. This has influenced the way politicians present themselves to the media, so much so that; the concern for media presentation overrides the policy interests of the politicians. This way, the media can decide to disseminate certain information to the public, while also opting to shelve some of the information, depending on what type of news such information would make (Negrine, 2013 p21). It is also the prerogative of the media to determine how the information they decide to be newsworthy is presented. The media can choose to make such information catchy, exciting and interesting, while opting to present others in a manner that does not attract much attention (King, 1985 p267). This way, the media is the ultimate determinant of the type of information the public gets, and how they get such information. The same is true for the political news, which the media can build-on to make it interesting, or water it down to make such news less relevant. Thus, the media ultimately determines the political profiles it builds for various political players, which in turn has a significant effect on the appearance of the individual in the eyes of the public (Negrine, 2013 p27). That is the important role that the media plays in British politics; the role of constructing or deconstructing political profiles, through determining the news to present, and how to present them. Is the higher civil service a political or merely an administrative institution? The classification of the higher civil service position as either political or administrative raises some problem, since the position of the position of the British Prime Minister fits in both political and administrative categories. This is because; the British Prime Minister plays a vital role in guiding the legislations of the House of Commons, which is a political role. On the other hand, the British Prime Minister plays the executive role of forming and coordinating the government, which falls under the category of administrative duties (Blick & Jones, 2010 p77). Therefore, the position of the British Prime Minister is not merely a political position, but a combination of both political and administrative functions. While many systems of governments in the world centers on the separation of powers, the British system of governance is unique, since it centers on uniting both the political and the administrative functions under the same position (Bennister, 2012 p42). The other aspect that makes it difficult to classify the position of the British Prime Minister as either political or administrative is the fact that; the British Prime Minister is elected as well as appointed. The individual taking up the position of the British Prime Minister has to be elected by the party that has the confidence of the majority in the House of Commons (Kavanagh & Seldon, 2008 p92). After this, the individual heading the party or the coalition that has the majority in the house is then appointed by the sovereign, to the position of the prime minister. The combination of elective and the appointive characteristics of the position of the British Prime Minister, make the position both political and administrative. References Bennister, M. (2012). Prime ministers in power: Political leadership in Britain and Australia. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Blick, A., & Jones, G. W. (2010). Premiership: The development, nature and power of the British Prime Minister. Exeter: Imprint Academic. Hennessy, P. (2001). The prime minister: The office and its holders since 1945. New York, N.Y: Palgrave. Kavanagh, D., & Seldon, A. (2008). The powers behind the Prime Minister: The hidden influence of Number Ten. London: HarperCollins. King, A. (1985). The British Prime Minister. Durham, N.C: Duke University Press. Negrine, R. (2013).Politics and the Mass Media in Britain. Routledge. Nther, A. (2011).Role of the British Media in Contemporary Politics. London: HarperCollins. Read More