Prime Minister and Executive
The Prime Minister leads the executive and exercises a range of prerogative powers inherited from the historic power of the monarch, including appointing and dismissing ministers, making senior public appointments, negotiating treaties and recommending the dissolution of Parliament.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Learn the Prime Minister's main prerogative powers, patronage, treaty negotiation, recommending dissolution, deploying the armed forces, honours, with one precise fact about each.
- Learn collective responsibility and individual ministerial responsibility as two distinct conventions, each with a real historical example.
- Learn the arguments for and against the 'presidentialisation' thesis as a specific list, not a vague impression, since this is one of the most common essay questions on the executive.
- For an evaluation question, plan three two-sided paragraphs, each weighing evidence the office has become more presidential against a genuine structural counterpoint.
- Give each paragraph a clear judgement before moving on; a paragraph that only lists ways the PM looks powerful, with no counterpoint about formal dependence on Cabinet and Commons, is capped in the middle band.
- Build a thesis-led introduction and a conclusion that weighs the three judgements to reach an overall, supported answer.
- Keep at least one historical example of a Prime Minister leaving office mid-term through party mechanisms ready as evidence against the presidential thesis, since this is a strong, checkable counterpoint.
Worked example
'The Prime Minister's power depends more on personal factors than on the powers of the office itself.' Evaluate this statement. Plan the essay: a thesis, three two-sided paragraphs and a conclusion.
- Underline the claim: are PERSONAL factors, character, popularity, authority, more important than the FORMAL powers of the office, patronage, prerogative, chairing Cabinet.
- Choose three comparisons: (1) patronage, (2) crisis leadership, (3) removal from office.
- Paragraph 1: the formal power of patronage lets a Prime Minister appoint and dismiss ministers, shaping Cabinet loyalty directly, weighed against the counterpoint that a Prime Minister with weak personal authority can still be defied by senior colleagues who calculate the PM is unlikely to survive a confrontation, then a judgement.
- Paragraph 2: international crises can showcase a Prime Minister's formal foreign policy and prerogative powers, such as deploying the armed forces, weighed against the counterpoint that how a Prime Minister is personally judged to have handled a crisis, rather than the powers used, usually determines whether their authority rises or falls afterwards, then a judgement.
- Paragraph 3: formally, only a Commons no-confidence vote removes a government, weighed against the counterpoint that in practice most recent Prime Ministers who left office mid-term did so through their own party's internal mechanisms, driven by a collapse in personal or political authority rather than a Commons defeat, then a judgement.
- Write a thesis and a conclusion that gives a clear, supported answer on whether personal or formal factors matter more.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What is meant by the Prime Minister's power of 'patronage'?Show answer
Answer: The power to appoint, promote, reshuffle and dismiss ministers, and to make a range of other senior public appointments and honours.
Q2What is 'collective responsibility'?Show answer
Answer: The convention that all Cabinet ministers must publicly support decisions made in Cabinet, or resign if they cannot.
Q3Give a historical example of a minister resigning over collective responsibility.Show answer
Answer: Robin Cook resigned from the Cabinet in 2003 in protest at the decision to join the invasion of Iraq, rather than publicly support it.
Q4What is 'individual ministerial responsibility'?Show answer
Answer: The convention that a minister is personally accountable to Parliament for the conduct and performance of their own department and their own actions, and may be expected to resign for a serious failing.
Q5Which Act restored the Prime Minister's prerogative power to request the dissolution of Parliament, and in what year?Show answer
Answer: The Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, which repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.
Q6What requirement does the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 place on treaties negotiated by the government?Show answer
Answer: Most treaties must be laid before Parliament for 21 sitting days before they can be ratified, giving Parliament an opportunity to object.
Q7Give one criticism made of 'sofa government'.Show answer
Answer: That it describes informal decision-making, often among a small circle of advisers, that bypasses full, formal Cabinet discussion and reduces collective ministerial input into major decisions, a practice criticised by the 2004 Butler Review.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a A Level Politics exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain TWO prerogative powers exercised by the Prime Minister.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 8 available
'The office of Prime Minister has become presidential.' Evaluate this statement.
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Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 30 available
See real A Level Politics past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the prime minister and executive worksheet pack - 7 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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