The enduring centrality of individual ministerial responsibility within the British constitution
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6291680 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Flinders (0000-0003-3585-9010, University of Sheffield, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 73-92 |
| Publication date | 2000-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Legislative Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-2334 • E-ISSN: 1743-9337 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13572330008420632 |
| OpenAlex | W2006064761 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 22 |
Despite concerns regarding its practical utility the convention of individual ministerial responsibility remains central to any analysis of the British constitution. The convention forms the 'buckle' in the relationship between parliament and the executive. It is widely acknowledged that throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the executive has gained the ascendancy in this relationship. Consequently, the enduring centrality of the convention rests not in its use by parliament as a tool with which to scrutinise the executive but, conversely, as a tool used by the executive to dismiss reform proposals that threaten its dominant position. This article reviews the way in which British government developed and particularly how this evolution gave primacy to a convention that contained mutually supportive yet contradictory strands. It then demonstrates the core argument of this article by examining two case studies ‐the introduction of freedom of information legislation and the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The article concludes by considering the wider implications of the continuing centrality of ministerial responsibility and the paradoxes and challenges it presents
Argument (complex analysis · Centrality · Constitution · Convention · Economics · Freedom of information · Government (linguistics · Human rights · Law and economics · Legislation · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Ombudsman and Human Rights
Mind the Gap
Bonfires and Barbecues
The Silent Revolution
The Influence of ‘Benthamite’ Philosophies on British Colonial Policy on New Zealand in the Era of the Treaty of Waitangi
Novel externalities
Distributed Public Governance in Britain
Shifting the Balance? Parliament, the Executive and the British Constitution
The enduring centrality of individual ministerial responsibility within the British constitution
Surveying the Landscape of Modernisation
Multi-Level Governance and the Study of the British State
Prime Minister, Cabinet and Core Executive
The Idea of the Ministerial Department
The Campaign for Freedom of Information
The New Public Management And A New Accountability
Ministries and Boards
The Politics of Accountability
The United Kingdom' Part in the Preparation of the European Convention on Human Rights, 1950
The Growth of Ministerial Control in the Nineteenth–Century House of Commons
Parliamentary Government’ and Victorian Political Parties, c. 1830–c1880
The Political Constitution
The Attorney General
Parliament and the Executive
Ministerial Accountability
Mechanisms of judicial accountability in British central government
Why the case for parliamentary reform in Britain is so weak
The enduring centrality of individual ministerial responsibility within the British constitution
The Working Constitution of the United Kingdom
| Citations per year | 0.38 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2000 - 2024 (25) |
| Highly cited | No |