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Key Characteristics
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The Westminster Model and the Civil Service
In this course, Dr Patrick Diamond (Queen Mary, University of London) explores the parliamentary system of government known as the Westminster Model, with a focus in the second half of the course on one of its central pillars: a permanent, independent civil service. In the first module, we think about the central characteristics of the Westminster Model – its core principles, how it operates, how it’s evolved historically, and how it’s currently understood. After that, in the second module, we think about the arguments for and against the Westminster Model. In the third module, we divide the supporters and critics of the Westminster Model into four ‘camps’, each of which has a different view of the merits of the Westminster Model and how (if at all) it should be changed. In the fourth module, we think about one of the central institutions of the Westminster Model, the Civil Service, before turning in the fifth and final module to consider the challenges and criticisms faced by the Civil Service in the past few decades and how it has adapted and continues to adapt as a result.
Key Characteristics
In this module, we think about the central characteristics of the Westminster Model – its core principles, how it operates, how it’s evolved historically, and how it’s currently understood. In particular, we focus on: (i) the fact that the UK operates under an unwritten constitution; (ii) the concepts of the sovereignty of parliament, the unitary state, and constitutional monarchy; (v) the nature of cabinet government; (vi) the role of the judiciary and its relation to the other branches of government; (vii) the UK electoral system; and (viii) the nature of the civil service in the Westminster Model.
My name is Dr Patrick Diamond.
00:00:05I'm a lecturer in public policy and British
00:00:07politics at Queen Mary University of London.
00:00:09In this section, we're going to look at identifying key characteristics, uh,
00:00:12and criteria of the Westminster model in British politics.
00:00:17One of the main ways in which British
00:00:20politics has been understood by political scientists and historians
00:00:22is by drawing on the concept of the Westminster model.
00:00:25And in this section we're going to look at what the Westminster model means,
00:00:28how it's been defined in the literature and how it's been understood.
00:00:32The term Westminster model is used in accounts of British politics in various ways.
00:00:36Some authors refer to the Westminster model
00:00:41in terms of an account of British political history.
00:00:43They use the Westminster model to try
00:00:46to understand the origins of British politics.
00:00:47How the past of British politics shapes the present,
00:00:50how past political institutions influence the development
00:00:53of political institutions in the present day.
00:00:56A second understanding of the Westminster model is as a
00:00:59description of how British politics actually works in practise.
00:01:02How does the British political system really operate?
00:01:06Who are the individuals and actors within the British political system?
00:01:08who hold most power,
00:01:12how they influence and exert their power within the political system.
00:01:14That's a second understanding by which the Westminster model is used.
00:01:17A third understanding of the Westminster model in the literature
00:01:22is to understand the Westminster model as an ideal type of British politics.
00:01:25In other words,
00:01:29it's a depiction of how the system should
00:01:30work if the system is functioning effectively.
00:01:32If the British political system
00:01:35is operating, as we would expect it to,
00:01:36it would conform to some of the key characteristics of the Westminster model.
00:01:38And a final way in which the Westminster model has been understood in the literature
00:01:44is in terms of a story which we tell ourselves about British politics,
00:01:47which is often used to legitimate the existing system.
00:01:51We do it this way because this is the way that it's always been done.
00:01:55The Westminster model embodies the best tradition of how British politics works.
00:01:58If we conform to the traditions of the Westminster model,
00:02:02then we can expect our political system to function efficiently and effectively,
00:02:05So the term Westminster model is used in various
00:02:10ways in the accounts of political scientists and historians.
00:02:13So what do we actually mean by the Westminster model?
00:02:17What are the core institutional characteristics of the Westminster model?
00:02:19How can it be defined?
00:02:23Well, there's a long list of core features of the Westminster model,
00:02:25and I'll just summarise them very briefly here.
00:02:28One of the most important attributes of the Westminster
00:02:31model is that it's centred on an unwritten constitution.
00:02:34The idea of the Westminster model is that
00:02:38the Constitution is set by precedent rather than by a written legal constitution
00:02:40that we would see in comparable countries like Germany and the United States.
00:02:45In Britain, we have an unwritten constitution.
00:02:48The Constitution develops organically.
00:02:51It is set by precedent.
00:02:53Another very important feature of the Westminster model
00:02:56is the idea of a sovereign parliament,
00:02:59the centre of political power within the country.
00:03:01The centre of legislative authority lies with parliament.
00:03:03Parliament is at the centre of politics in Westminster, its parliament,
00:03:07whose authority is supreme.
00:03:11The Westminster model
00:03:13is based upon the fundamental assumption
00:03:15that the sovereignty of parliament is sacrosanct.
00:03:18And this of course,
00:03:22is very relevant also to other debates in contemporary times about Brexit,
00:03:22about the notion of reclaiming sovereignty from the European Union
00:03:26and so on
00:03:30a third fundamental feature of the Westminster model
00:03:31is the idea of a unitary state.
00:03:34The Westminster model emerged in an era when there was a unified Great Britain,
00:03:37a Britain comprised of four constituent nations England, Wales,
00:03:41Scotland and Northern Ireland.
00:03:45And again, the Westminster model is based on the assumption of a unitary state.
00:03:48The four nations of the UK are ruled through Westminster Authority may be devolved,
00:03:52as it has been since the late 19 nineties, to institutions in Scotland,
00:03:59Wales and Northern Ireland.
00:04:03That takes some decisions at the local level.
00:04:04But the fundamental principle is it's Westminster, which is still sovereign,
00:04:08and over issues of foreign policy, economic policy, defence and so on.
00:04:11It's still Westminster,
00:04:17which has both supreme authority and also day
00:04:18to day decision making powers over those issues.
00:04:20So a unitary state is another core feature of the Westminster model.
00:04:23The Westminster model also involves a constitutional monarchy.
00:04:28Britain again has the features of a constitutional
00:04:31monarchy in which the monarch plays a significant role
00:04:34in the day to day workings of politics
00:04:37and the constitution by exercising certain prerogative powers.
00:04:39Another feature of the Westminster model,
00:04:44which has caused some controversy in recent times has been the idea of Britain being
00:04:45ruled through what is called Cabinet government rather
00:04:49than prime ministerial government by Cabinet government.
00:04:52We mean the idea that the country is ruled through a body a
00:04:55cabinet comprised of around 22 ministers who
00:04:59each take collective responsibility for policy decisions
00:05:03in a prime ministerial model or, indeed, a presidential model of government.
00:05:07Obviously, the idea there is that there is an individual who is in overall charge.
00:05:11He takes authority over key decisions
00:05:16in the Westminster model system with a cabinet at the heart of the system.
00:05:19The idea is that it's a group of
00:05:23ministers who ruled together they take collective responsibility.
00:05:25And in the phrase that's often used, the prime minister is first among equals.
00:05:28Yes, the prime minister is the leading minister,
00:05:32but they're only the leading minister insofar as they
00:05:34can command the confidence of the other ministers within
00:05:36the Cabinet.
00:05:40As we've seen,
00:05:42the Westminster model is based on the idea of an
00:05:43unwritten constitution and therefore the
00:05:46Constitution operates through precedent.
00:05:49Rules are shaped by constitutional convention
00:05:52rather than by higher legal authority,
00:05:57and therefore convention plays a very important role in
00:06:00the day to day operation of the Westminster Model
00:06:03one or two final points to define the core features of the Westminster model.
00:06:07The Westminster model is based on the
00:06:12principle that there is an independent judiciary.
00:06:13So the judiciary is appointed independently of the
00:06:16executive and has an independent constitutional authority.
00:06:19Two other important features of the Westminster
00:06:23model which make the Westminster model.
00:06:25What it is
00:06:27one is that
00:06:28the electoral system that
00:06:30leads governments to be elected in Britain
00:06:32is based on the idea of what's called the first past the post electoral system.
00:06:35And this tends to mean that the
00:06:39governments which are elected our majority governments,
00:06:41they have a majority in the House of Commons.
00:06:44They're able to rule without having to rely
00:06:46on the support of other political parties.
00:06:48We call this a winner takes all system,
00:06:50and it tends to lead at least historically to reasonably
00:06:53stable governments with majorities who are able to rule for
00:06:574 to 5 years without having to resort to making
00:07:00deals with other parties are having to negotiate legislation.
00:07:04In other words,
00:07:08the Westminster model and the electoral system of winner takes
00:07:09all are based on a notion of strong government.
00:07:11A final characteristic of the Westminster model,
00:07:16which is very relevant to this talk today, is that the Westminster system,
00:07:19the Whitehall model,
00:07:25operates through a politically neutral permanent civil service.
00:07:26The Westminster model relies on ministers politicians to take
00:07:31decisions but the day to day workings of government.
00:07:34The day to day operations of the British state
00:07:37happened through a civil service which is independent,
00:07:39which is politically neutral, which is non partisan,
00:07:44which remains in place as governments change between elections
00:07:47and which has the authority to carry out decisions on behalf of ministers.
00:07:51So a politically neutral,
00:07:56permanent civil service is a core feature of the Westminster model.
00:07:57If we add all of these characteristics together,
00:08:02then we do see this reasonably coherent
00:08:05UK Government Westminster model system, which is relatively unique in the world,
00:08:09but which has given Britain
00:08:15this very unique way of governing itself for the past three centuries.
00:08:16
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Diamond, P. (2020, February 21). The Westminster Model and the Civil Service - Key Characteristics [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/the-westminster-model-and-the-civil-service/key-characteristics
MLA style
Diamond, P. "The Westminster Model and the Civil Service – Key Characteristics." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 21 Feb 2020, https://massolit.io/courses/the-westminster-model-and-the-civil-service/key-characteristics