Comparing Cabinets: Dilemmas of Collective Government

Why is cabinet government so resilient? Despite many obituaries, why does it continue to be the vehicle for governing across most parliamentary systems? Comparing Cabinets 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 and consistency to 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; and 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, and constantly reappearing in different forms. Comparing distinct parliamentary systems reveals how traditions, beliefs, and practices shape the answers. There is no single definition of cabinet government, but rather arenas and shared practices that provide some cohesion. Such a comparative approach allows greater insight into the process of cabinet government that cannot be achieved in the study of any single political system, and an understanding of the pressures on each system by appreciating the options that are elsewhere accepted as common beliefs.

Table of Contents:
1: Understanding Cabinet Government Part I. National Traditions, Myths, and Practices 2: United Kingdom--Governing Traditions and Processes 3: Australian Traditions and Practices 4: Dutch Traditions and Practices 5: Danish Traditions and Practices 6: The Swiss Federal Council Traditions Part II. Dilemmas of Cabinet Government 7: The Process Dilemma: Predictability v Political Imperatives 8: The Policy Dilemma: Puzzling v Political Risk 9: The Political Dilemma: Self-interest v Cohesion 10: The Leadership Dilemma: Command v Persuasion 11: The Accountability Dilemma: Maintaining Support v Making Unpopular Decisions 12: Conclusion: Cabinet Government's Open Secrets: Flexibility and Resilience Appendix A Appendix B

About the Author :
Patrick Weller is Professor Emeritus in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. He has written a number of books on executive government in Australia and in comparative focus, including studies of prime ministers, ministers, departmental secretaries, and central agencies. He has also co-authored four books on the working of international organizations. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his contribution 'towards an understanding of executive government in Australia'. Dennis Grube is Reader in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Girton College. His recent books include Megaphone Bureaucracy: Speaking Truth to Power in the Age of the New Normal (2019) and Institutional Memory as Storytelling (with J. Corbett, H. Lovell and R. J. Scott, 2020). R.A.W. Rhodes is Professor of Government (Research) and Director of the Centre for Political Ethnography at the University of Southampton. He is the author or editor of fourty-two books including, most recently, The Art and Craft of Comparison (with J. Boswell and J. Corbett, 2019); Networks, Governance and the Differentiated Polity. Selected Essays. Volume I. (2017), and Narrative Policy Analysis (2018). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK). In 2015, the ECPR awarded him their biennial Lifetime Achievement Award for his 'outstanding contribution to all areas of political science, and the exceptional impact of his work'.

Review :
Comparing Cabinets is a gripping account of the most secretive institution of government. Across parliamentary democracies and time it shows how Prime Ministers strive to obtain unity. Understanding of our political institutions is often deficient, in part because we lack a perspective of understanding how these institutions perform facing similar demands abroad. Very few institutions have been longer lasting or more important in modern democracies than cabinets. This book, richly informed by evidence and specialist knowledge, brings out striking conclusions which throw important light on our understanding.