core executive

   The complex network of institutions and people at the centre that between them are charged with the day-to-day government of the country, the making of policies and the implementation of laws. The core comprises the first minister, the cabinet and its committees, the offices that serve the first minister and cabinet, and the departments headed as they are by senior ministers and including senior civil servants. These groups represent the pinnacle of the decision-making process.

   Rather than focusing debate on whether we have prime ministerial government or Cabinet government, some analysts prefer to think in terms of such a ‘core’ whose members circle around the Prime Minister and his colleagues. They point out that all of them are involved in a power network with other influential people and organisations in Whitehall and Westminster. Membership of the core is liable to change and it is not always clear who should be included at any given moment. During the invasion and occupation of Iraq, it will include the leaders among the military, but they would probably not normally be involved. Members of most – if not all – Cabinet committees qualify for inclusion. In some listings, so also do the Chief Whip and even those who chair backbench parliamentary committees.

   Further reading: M. Burch and I. Holiday, The British Cabinet System, Prentice Hall, 2004