The Politics Prime Ministers Make: Political Time and Executive Leadership in Westminster Systems

Laing, Matthew; McCaffrie, Brendan

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199666423.003.0004

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…Table 2 reports the rank order that emerged in response to the open question 'Who is the best PM that the Netherlands has ever had (or still has)?' The experts clearly converge on three PMs from three different ideological groupings who were active in three different parts of the twentieth century which represented quite different points in Dutch 'political time' (Velde, 2002;Skowronek, 2008;see also 't Hart, 2011b;Laing and McCaffrie, 2013): the social democratic icon and pragmatic post-World War II architect of the modern Dutch welfare state, Willem Drees; the unaffiliated liberal academic who shepherded the nation through neutrality in World War I and managed to resolve some of the most sensitive ideological and inter-faith political conundrums of the era, Pieter Cort van der Linden; and the long-serving ChristianAssessing prime-ministerial performance in a multiparty democracy democratic master of the political compromise who managed to lift the country out of its early 1980s deep recession, Ruud Lubbers.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing prime-ministerial performance in a multiparty democracy: The Dutch case

Hart

Schelfhout

2015

Acta Polit

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This article discusses the use of expert ranking methodology for assessing the performance and 'place in history' of heads of government, in particular prime ministers (PMs). It reports an expert ranking study of PMs in the Netherlands. Open/ spontaneous as well as criteria-led, more detailed modes of performance assessment are compared. Moreover, the study's findings, pertaining as they do to a PM hemmed in by the need to manage tenuous coalitions in a multi-party consensual democracy, are compared against those of similar exercises conducted for PMs in majoritarian, Westminster style democracies, suggesting that prime-ministerial reputations in multiparty democracies are made on the strength of their longevity in office, their coalition management skills and the policy legacy of their governments. Acta Politica advance online publication, 13 February 2015; doi:10.1057/ap.2015.2 Keywords: prime minister; political leadership; The Netherlands; expert ranking methodology How to Ascertain Prime-Ministerial Performance?Evaluating the performance of government leaders has always been an ordeal. Political candidates can be assessed simply in terms of their electoral fortunes, and party leaders in addition in terms of the coherence and robustness of the party organisation, but how do we systematically evaluate the leadership of prime ministers (PMs) and other heads of government? They are publicly held responsible for 'everything' yet often highly constrained in their ability to shape anything, as many of their memoirs are quick to attest to. Indeed, judgments of chief executive performance are ubiquitous -in the polls, by commentators, among backbenchers, by historians and quite often their predecessors. Many observers are quick to praise them and as quick to damn them. Much talk about prime-ministerial leadership performance is ephemeral, subjective, and politically motivated.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing prime-ministerial performance in a multiparty democracy: The Dutch case

Hart

Schelfhout

2015

Acta Polit

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“…Skowronek’s model has been applied to Australia and has potential applications elsewhere (Laing and McCaffrie, 2013). However, it needs adaptation to the constitutional, institutional and political characteristics of a Westminster system (Heffernan, 2005; Laing and McCaffrie, 2013: 84–89). These differences are well understood and do not need detailing extensively here.…”

Section: Applying Skowronek To British Prime Ministersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Byrne

Randall

Theakston

2016

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the UK by applying a critical reading of Stephen SkowronekÕs account of leadership in Ôpolitical timeÕ to evaluate David CameronÕs premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on GreensteinÕs and BulpittÕs approaches. We identify Cameron as a disjunctive prime minister but find it necessary to significantly develop the model of disjunctive leadership beyond that offered by Skowronek. We identify the warrants to authority, strategies and dilemmas associated with disjunctive leadership in the UK. We argue that Cameron was relatively skilful in meeting many of the challenges confronting an affiliated leader of a vulnerable regime. However, his second term exposed deep fractures in the regime which proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader. Research highlights This article:¥ Contributes to the debate about the best theoretical frameworks for evaluating prime ministerial performance in the UK. ¥ Argues that an historical institutionalist framework is able to address the major shortcoming of existing frameworks, namely evaluating prime ministerial performance in the structural context of the political environment in which holders of that office act. ¥ Adapts Stephen SkowronekÕs account of the performance of US presidents to the constitutional, institutional and political circumstances of the UK polity and significantly develops SkowronekÕs account of regime vulnerability and the characteristics and constraints of disjunctive leadership ¥ Applies this adapted model for the purposes of a systematic evaluation of David CameronÕs premiership. This identifies that although Cameron was relatively successful in negotiating the challenges and constraints of disjunctive prime ministerial leadership in his first term he made commitments which, in his second term, exposed key fault lines in the regime and proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader to manage.2

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“…Things happening 'out there' are perceived and understood differently by political actors: 'the economy', 'the Zeitgeist' or 'the geostrategic situations' are assigned meaning in media stories which are framed in particular ways -often with strategic intent. Such meaning-making contests are pivotal in mediating the effects of situations upon leaders' capital (see Skowronek 1993Skowronek , 2010't Hart and Uhr 2011;Laing and McCaffrie 2013;'t Hart 2014). The view of these narratives themselves may also shift over time: Thatcher and Reagan's 'pro-free market small state' narrative is viewed differently post 2007 crash than it was in the boom years of the late 1990s.…”

Section: Leadership Capitalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Authority of Political Office-Holders: The Leadership Capital Index

Bennister¹,

Hart²,

Worthy³

2014

West European Politics

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This article argues that the extent to which political office-holders can effectively attain and wield authority is a function of the stock of 'leadership capital.' Drawing on the concept of political capital, we define leadership capital as aggregate authority composed of three dimensions: skills; relations; and reputation of a leader. Leadership capital ebbs and flows over time within a trajectory of acquisition, expenditure and inevitable depreciation. We present a Leadership Capital Index (LCI) that systematically maps out the three broad areas combining concrete measures with interpretive aspects. This can be used as a tool for systematically tracking and comparing the political fortunes of leaders in a way that is both more nuanced and robust than exclusive reliance on the latest approval ratings. We offer an illustrative case study of Tony Blair demonstrating the LCI. We conclude by discerning several promising paths for future development of the LCI.

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The Politics Prime Ministers Make: Political Time and Executive Leadership in Westminster Systems

Cited by 21 publications

References 0 publications

Assessing prime-ministerial performance in a multiparty democracy: The Dutch case

Assessing prime-ministerial performance in a multiparty democracy: The Dutch case

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Assessing the Authority of Political Office-Holders: The Leadership Capital Index

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