Comparing Cabinets: The dilemmas of collective government

Grube, Dennis, Weller, Patrick and Rhodes, R. A. W. (2021) Comparing Cabinets: The dilemmas of collective government , First ed. Oxford University Press, 258pp.

Abstract

Why is cabinet government so resilient? Despite many obituaries, why does it continue to be the vehicle for governing across most parliamentary systems? This book answers these questions by examining the structure and performance of cabinet government in five democracies: the United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia.The book is organised around the dilemmas that cabinet governments must solve.
how to develop the formal rules and practices that can bring predictability to the daily business and allow consistent decision making;
how to balance good policy with good politics;
how to ensure cohesion between the factions and parties that constitute the cabinet while allowing levels of self interest to be advanced;
how leaders can balance persuasion and command;
how to maintain support through accountability at the same time as being able to make unpopular decisions.

All these dilemmas are continuing challenges to cabinet government, never solvable, constantly reappearing in different forms. We ask how traditions, beliefs and practices shape the answers. Two of the countries are Westminster systems, albeit now with different practices. Two are European governments where proportional representation ensures that single-party governments are rare and coalitions need to be negotiated and maintained. One is a system where all the major parties are represented in the federal council and where every item must be negotiated because there is no collation agreement.The different practices show there can be no single definition of cabinet government. Rather, there are arenas and shared practices such as collective responsibility that provide some cohesion. The traditions and practices shape the direction but do not dictate what should be done. The comparison puts each of the individual cabinet systems into clearer perspective. There are always other ways of solving what at first sight might appear intractable. The book used its comparative approach to provide analysis and insights into the process of cabinet government that cannot be achieved in the study of any single political system. We better understand the pressures on each system by appreciating the options that are elsewhere accepted as common beliefs.

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Contributors

Author: R. A. W. Rhodes

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