Ministers, Departments and Civil Servants

Abstract

This chapter continues our examination of ‘the Executive’ by considering the major Departments of State. We begin by characterising them in terms of functions, size and organisation. We then turn to the two leading themes of the chapter — first, to a consideration of the roles of Ministers and civil servants, with special emphasis upon the nature of the relationship between them; and second to an analysis of the convention of Ministerial responsibility, which in traditional accounts has been held to describe the accountability of the heads of Departments of State to parliament. Our dual focus is, therefore, upon how decisions are made throughout the bulk of British Government and how those decisions are made accountable. We place particular emphasis on explaining these roles and relationships in the context of the major explanatory theories.