Tony Blair and John Howard: Comparative Predominance and 'Institution Stretch' in the UK and Australia
It has recently been argued that the UK premier enjoys a level of executive power unavailable to US presidents, but how does he or she compare to another prime minister operating within a broadly similar system? Commonalities of intra-executive influence and capacity exist under the premier-ships in...
Saved in:
Published in | British journal of politics & international relations Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 327 - 345 |
---|---|
Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford, UK
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.08.2007
SAGE Publications |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | It has recently been argued that the UK premier enjoys a level of executive power unavailable to US presidents, but how does he or she compare to another prime minister operating within a broadly similar system? Commonalities of intra-executive influence and capacity exist under the premier-ships in the UK and Australia. Discrete institutional constraints and deviations are evident, but trends and similarities in resource capacity can be clearly identified. These include: the growth of the leaders’ office; broadening and centralising of policy advice and media operations; and strengthening of the role and function of ministerial advisers. I contend that this amounts to ‘institution stretch’, with new structures, processes and practices becoming embedded in the political system by the incumbents. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-91T8BW0X-S istex:69ADBC2D028246F48BC4DF03AADDFC0CAB082D11 ArticleID:BJPI292 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 1369-1481 1467-856X |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1467-856X.2007.00292.x |