British Prime Minister's Powers

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Since the 1950s there has been a rise in the power of the Prime Minister, specially Crossman in 1962 and Benn, who in 1979 referred to “a system of personal rule in the very heart of our Parliamentary democracy”. As Britain has remained the “world’s most successful representative democracy”. The role of the executive has significantly increased at a great deal since the end of World War 2, however, the outward dangers of a supplementary individual hegemony attached to the Prime Minister shouldn’t be overemphasized. Although the modern examples of Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair whose styles of leadership have each been labelled as presidential. In this essay I will be assessing the four main prime minister’s power and if his or her powers constrained under the British system. For instances, the power of patronage, cabinet power, the party leadership and the mass media. These are four main factors of the prime minister and its effectiveness can be argued.
The fundamental power of the prime minister is the “power of patronage”, meaning the capability to appoint and sack, encourage and relegate all ministers in the government. This reinforces the power of the prime minister in two approaches: the prime minister can ensure the appointment and promotion of loyal supporters and “especially of politicians who share his or her political or ideological preference”. This suggests that the rivals, critics or political opponents can be circumscribed from the government and put into lower positions. Also as the prime minister regulators their governmental careers, it ensures that the ministers and back benches cooperate together in order to remain loyal and supportive. As they serve under the prime ministers will, this gives the prime ministe...

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...so the mass media plays a significant role in prime ministers power, as it enables political information to flow to the society and most importantly it is under the government’s control, therefore the prime minister can structure the news before it is established on the newspapers. However, having a bad communication with the mass media may lead you to look as an unsuccessful leader that lacks skills and this can overall damage your image. Overall, as I have explained the Prime Minister Lack power under the system he operates due to the other factors that have taken more power over the prime minister. A call for an action is necessary as the system no longer seems stable, many of the people who stand on behalf of us are under a party loyalty and party discipline system, and therefore they cannot express their interest in case it contradicts to the party’s ideology.

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