british Prime minister
The headships of the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands all have an identifiable office which can be called Prime Minister. ... I will show that because of these aspects, someone of an activist disposition would most want the British office, secondly the Dutch, and thirdly the Italian. The British Prime Minister is generally the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons, which usually has a majority (that is fifty percent plus one). therefore to become Prime Minister of Britain, it is necessary to be leader of one of the main parties and for that party to be the largest party in the House of Commons. ... The appointed formateur then holds then holds the delicate task of trying to form a cabinet and a broad policy agenda, usually the formateur ending up as Prime Minister. ... Since 1948, the President of The Republic has played a minor role in Italian politics, the true headship is the President of The Council of Ministers; To avoid any confusion between the two, this position will subsequently be referred to as Prime Minister. To become Prime Minister in Italy, after a collapse of government or an election, an individual attempts to form a coalition between parties so as to form a majority in the Chamber of Deputies. ... Generally the Prime Minister emerges from the coalition building process as a position agreed upon by all the forming parties, generally he comes from the largest party (DC) but Prime Ministers have held office with their party representing as little as 3. ... In the British system, the job is principally lost (as opposed to resigning voluntarily) in two main ways, either losing a General Election or the party deciding to have a new party leader. Since 1940, there have been 12 changes of Prime Minister, six have occurred by a general election defeat and four by party pressure and subsequent replacement from within the party. ... There have been twelve Prime Ministers forming 21 coalitions between 1945 and 1991. ... Between 1947 and 1995, there were 31 changes in Prime Minister heading 49 coalitions, nine changes were the result of a general election, forty were due to a collapse of government. Number of Changes in Prime Minister. ... Average Life of Prime Ministers Government. ... Table to show the average time in power a prime minister had in each country 1947-1991. ... It shows that the average Italian Prime Minister is in power for less than half the time of the average Dutch or British Premier over the same time scale. ... There are a number of important powers which the British Prime Minister holds. ... The Prime Ministers power to appoint ministers gives him a tremendous power over his party. ... Finally, the Prime Minister has control over what is recorded in the minutes. This could be argued to be the real power of the British Prime Minister, but again it has to be qualified. The Prime Minister may instigate or favour a particular policy but it is individual ministers, cabinet and cabinet committees who act on them via the departmental system. The Prime Minister possesses enormous influence over ministers and cabinet, but ultimately it is their decision to act upon them. The third power is the Prime Ministers prerogative to decide when to ask the monarch to dissolve Parliament (within a five year limit). ... The fifth power is the Prime Ministers hunting licence - the ability to be involved in whatever part of the government that is deemed important by the Premier. There are two aspects to this, firstly the Prime Minister is held as ultimately responsible for all the actions of the government. He is at the centre of the organisation and the business of government, anything which goes wrong ultimately is the Prime Ministers fault. ... These two, when combined, and with the individual ministers in the knowledge that it is the Prime Minister with ultimate responsibility allow this to occur. The sixth power is the prime ministers role of being the first ambassador for Britain, for things such as visits by other leaders, G7 conferences and other summits such as the forthcoming Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC). ... uk me Minister must keep to the confines of what their party will find acceptable and be ready to ratify in Parliament, the example of the Maastricht treaty where it became necessary to threaten dissolution of Parliament, is an obvious example of where the Prime Minister could be said to have negotiated a treaty that was not going to be accepted by a necessary amount of Members of Parliament. The final power is the Prime Minister is seen as the principle spokesman for the government, either by public speeches or interviews by the media. This enhances the Prime Ministers image. ... If we compare directly Britain as already described with the Netherlands, it is simple to see how much weaker the Dutch Prime Minister is.