British Prime Minister
The headships of the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands all have an identifiable office which can be called Prime Minister. However, their function, resources and ability to enact changes within their various systems vary considerably. In this essay, I will compare some of the important aspects of the headships of Britain, Italy and Holland. I will compare how the office is gained, how it is lost, how long each leader stays there, the powers each office holds and the amount of independent influence over policy formation. I will show that because of these aspects, someone of an activist disposition would most want the British office, secondly the Dutch, and thirdly the Italian.The British Prime Minister is generally the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, which usually has a majority (that is fifty percent plus one). therefore to become Prime Minister of Britain, it is necessary to be leader of one of the main parties and for that party to be the largest party in the House of Commons. The individual parties have different methods of selecting their leader and times when this can be done, the most significant difference being that the Conservative Members of Parliament elect their
Weil, G.L. The Benelux Nations. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. USA. 1970. Together with everything already discussed, how the job is attained and lost, how long a leader can be expected to be in power and how much power each office holds. The final consideration is how much policy can the Prime Minister initiate. In the British system, it is expected that the Prime Minister should lead, they have the power, some would argue obligation to set the 'direction of government'. That is provide the broad agenda with which policy is formulated within. Post war Prime Ministers have taken special interest in defence and foreign policy; the economy; and national security; often taking decisions on policy alone, although usually after consultation. To become Prime Minister in Italy, after a collapse of government or an election, an individual attempts to form a coalition between parties so as to form a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. The largest party in Italian politics up until 1992 was consistently the Christian Democrats (DC). Generally the Prime Minister emerges from the coalition building process as a position agreed upon by all the forming parties, generally he comes from the largest party (DC) but Prime Ministers have held office with their party representing as little as 3.0% of the vote in the Chamber of Deputies. The sixth power is the prime ministers role of being the first ambassador for Britain, for things such as visits by other leaders, G7 conferences and other summits such as the forthcoming Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC). This gives him some level of autonomy over other ministers in negotiating 'Britains position' with little or none of their influence. This again can be qualified in that the Pri taken from essaybank.co.uk me Minister must keep to the confines of what their party will find acceptable and be ready to ratify in Parliament, the example of the Maastricht treaty where it became necessary to threaten dissolution of Parliament, is an obvious example of where the Prime Minister could be said to have negotiated a treaty that was not going to be accepted by a necessary amount of Members of Parliament. The forth power is the ability to independently create, change, merge or abolish the structure of government. This includes the changes in government departments such as those relating t Trade, Industry and Power since the 1970s. It also includes the reorganising of the civil service, such as the 'Next Steps' report. Again this has to be qualified, a department cannot be drastically altered because the leaders doesn't like it, reasons have to given for the changes, the business of government still has to be done and if (e.g.) a ministry were abolished then its' duties would have to be carried out elsewhere. The Dutch Prime Minister can only persuade (not request or demand) the Monarch a dissolution of Parliament "at the end of a regular Parliamentary term, or where there is a clear cabinet crisis" Their is no power of dissolution for electoral gain.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Prime Minister, Prime Ministers, Forthly Elgie, prime minister, Italy Holland, Dutch Premier, Chamber Deputies, President Republic, United Kingdom, Government Britain, Industry Power, prime ministers, italian prime, british prime, british prime minister, largest party, dutch prime minister, italian prime minister, dutch prime, power prime, united kingdom, civil service, ed west, power prime ministers, european prime ministers,
Approximate Word count = 4090
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)
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