Prime Ministers in Power

Transcription

1 Prime Ministers in Power

2 Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership series Series editors: Ludger Helms, Professor and Chair of Comparative Politics, University of Innsbruck, Austria Robert Elgie, Paddy Moriarty Professor of Government and International Studies, Dublin City University, Republic of Ireland Takashi Inoguchi, Professor Emeritus, Universities of Tokyo & Niigata Prefecture, Japan Barbara Kellerman, James MacGregor Burns Lecturer in Leadership, Centre for Public Leadership, Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA Gillian Peele, Fellow and Tutor in Politics, University of Oxford, UK Bert A. Rockman, Professor and Head of Department, Department of Political Science, Purdue University, USA Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership seeks to gather some of the best work on political leadership broadly defined, stretching from classic areas such as executive, legislative and party leadership to understudied manifestations of political leadership beyond the state. Edited by an international board of distinguished leadership scholars from the United States, Europe and Asia, the series publishes cutting-edge research that reaches out to a global readership. Titles include: Mark Bennister PRIME MINISTERS IN POWER Political Leadership in Britain and Australia Kevin Theakston and Jouke de Vries (editors) FORMER LEADERS IN MODERN DEMOCRACIES Political Sunsets Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership series Series Standing Order ISBN (hardback) and (paperback) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

3 Prime Ministers in Power Political Leadership in Britain and Australia Mark Bennister Lecturer, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK

4 Mark Bennister 2012 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

5 For Lindsey and Bea

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7 Contents List of Figures and Tables Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations ix x xvi xvii Part I 1 Introduction: Comparing Prime Ministers 3 Prime ministers and political leadership 3 Political leadership 5 Classifying political leadership 9 Studying the British prime minister 12 Studying the Australian prime minister 15 Current research trends 17 Predominance 20 Choice of countries 24 Framework for analysis 30 Part II 2 Cabinet as a Resource 39 Australia: Cabinet traditionalism 40 Australia: Committees and collegiality 46 Britain: Cabinet Too little time, too many busy people 51 Britain: Committees and collegiality 54 Cabinet collegiality compared 60 3 Prime Minister and Party 63 Party leadership 64 Leadership selection 67 The party in context 71 Australia: The party room 73 Britain: The leader and the party in power 76 Prime minister and parliament 80 Prime minister as party leader: Skill in context 84 vii

8 viii Contents 4 Controlling and Strengthening the Centre 88 People not positions 90 The Prime Minister s Office 99 Capacity at the centre 101 Departmental capacity 108 Comparative institutional support 116 Part III 5 Prime Ministers: Personal Capacity 123 Character as skill 124 Heresthetics: Political skill 135 Bargaining skills 137 Rhetoric 143 Howard: The constant dialogue 150 Blair: The spin cycle 154 Strategic skills and teaching reality Splendid Isolation: Personalisation and Autonomy 161 Personalisation 163 Prime ministers as autonomous agents 166 Part IV 7 Comparative Perspectives and Conclusions 183 Institutional capacity 185 Personal capacity 189 Notes 196 References 205 Index 217

9 List of Figures and Tables Figures 1.1 The interactionist approach to political leadership Prime ministerial predominance: 3 dimensional interactionism Predominance: A framework Blair: Map of the Centre Howard: Map of the Centre Blair and Howard : Net approval ratings 174 Tables 1.1 Main features of the Australian and British political systems Meetings held of the cabinet and its committees Total cost of the Prime Minister s Office The number of staff on the Number 10 payroll Prime ministerial staff numbers Whitlam to Howard PMC workload Howard s media encounters Institutional capacity Personal capacity 191 ix

10 Preface If a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need. The Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli 1513 Tony Blair and John Howard, although seemingly incongruous choices for comparison coming as they did from different political traditions, were predominant election-winning leaders. As John Uhr, in his illuminating analysis of the role of ethics in Australian government Terms of Trust wrote, Prime Ministers Blair and Howard c[a]me from opposite sides of the partisan fence, but they share[d] this longing for preeminence (Uhr 2005: 92). Over time, the political capital generated by each inevitably fell away to the extent that, after over 10 years as prime minister of their respective countries, they both (although for contrasting reasons) left office in This book is a timely addition to the developing scholarly material on political leadership, adding a new comparative dimension. By taking a structured comparative approach, this book asks some fundamental questions about prime ministers in power in Britain and Australia. How did these two prime ministers establish such predominant positions? How far can prime ministers stretch the institutions within which they work and how much of an impact does the office-holder have on the office? What conclusions can be drawn from a comparison of the two prime ministers? What are the consequences and costs of such predominance? The book draws on two strands of literature which tend not to be used together. The core executive model favoured by institutionalists considers the prime minister as one of many interdependent actors in a model of executive government whereby power is dispersed. This contrasts with the individualised or personalised model which focuses on a single leader and the impact of agency. Seeing the prime minister as the predominant actor with greater resources, though operating within the core executive model, enables us to progress beyond the disputed territory (Heffernan 2003; Helms 2005; Theakston 2002, 2007). Prime ministerial predominance can be analysed through a framework that blends personal capacity with the institutional capacity of a leader. As Heffernan (2005) has noted with regard to the British prime minister, x

11 Preface xi predominance is dependent on the political skill of the leader to marry the two aspects together. Political skill is in turn dependent on the context within which the leader is operating. Both Britain and Australia, under Tony Blair and John Howard, experienced what we can term predominant prime ministerial leadership. Institutional similarities were evident: centralisation of advisory functions, mediatisation, personalisation of electoral campaigns, executive dominance. There were also significant differences, particularly in the style of cabinet management and levels of collegiality, and in the accountability and institutional constraints that the two prime ministers were subject to over time. Both leaders resisted the realities of modern distributed leadership and grew to rely on a popularised autonomous relationship with the electorate which, ultimately, left them vulnerable and dislocated from both party and voters. The book is more than two case studies; it is an exploration of contemporary political leadership. Part I of the book sets out the comparative context and provides a route into the literature on political leadership, prime ministers and comparative study of the subject area. Chapter 1 gives a broad overview of the key texts and draws together much of the divergent literature that spans a range of academic disciplines and sub-disciplines including political psychology, public administration, political science and presidential studies. Part II concentrates on the other institutional resources available to the prime minister: the cabinet mechanisms, party leadership and the advisory systems. Prime ministers are institutionally empowered to lead the government through management of the collegiate resources at their disposal. These resources include formal cabinet meetings and cabinet committees. Increasingly collegial resources now include bilateral and ad hoc meetings between the prime minister and ministers. Collective ministerial decision-making may officially be the central feature of the cabinet system, but increasingly their deliberations are predetermined by pre- decisions taken outside the formal cabinet system (Heffernan 2003b: 359). This may have been the case under Blair, but in Australia the cabinet system reflected the more institutional and collegiate approach evident in Australian political culture, though it has not received the same level of analysis as its British counterpart. 1 In considering cabinet as prime ministerial tool, Chapter 2 asks: How did each prime minister deploy the cabinet and collegial resources available? How did they shape and stretch cabinet as a political and bureaucratic resource? Although leading the party generates personal capacity, there is an institutional element to the relationship between the prime minister

12 xii Preface and the party when in power. It is self-evident that in the Westminster system of government prime ministers hold office because they are party leaders. Prime ministers owe their position to the party; they must take notice of the party and are accountable to it. Once in office though, the party leader as prime minister is less encumbered by the party. Weller (2007) stressed that cabinet is accountable to the parliamentary party, and cabinet is in effect party government. However, there remain important institutional aspects of the relationship between the prime minister and party that can constrain or empower the leader, such as the parliamentary party. Chapter 3 pursues three lines of inquiry. First, what is the nature of party leadership in Britain and Australia? Second, how are leaders selected and what party context do they operate in? Third, what has been the relationship between the prime minister and the party in power? Prime ministers require political and bureaucratic support, and the growth of administrative and policy capacity directly answerable to the prime minister was evident under Blair and Howard. Patronage enables a prime minister to surround him or herself with key political confidants, creating gate keeping and dependency networks. The British prime minister is supported by a private office in Downing Street and a de facto prime ministerial department spread between Downing Street and the Cabinet Office. Fluid policy units and loose advisory structures characterised the centre under Blair. Blair made no apologies for strengthening the centre. In Australia the prime minister can draw on a formal department of prime minister and cabinet in addition to his own private office and extensive advisory network, providing contestable and often competitive advice. Contemporary prime ministers have considerable, centralised news media resources. Overall government communications strategy is driven from the centre, a trend most evidently displayed in the early Blair years. The alignment of government messages enhanced the personalised nature of contemporary politics whereby the prime minister increasingly became the medium through which the government s message was communicated. Chapter 4 asks: Did people rather than the positions they held become key to the prime minister s advisory support? How did Blair and Howard build capacity at the centre? What support mechanisms did they establish? How did they relate to the bureaucracy? Part III addresses the personal side to political leadership. The individual in office can draw on personal characteristics such as skill, ability, reputation, high standing in the party, an association with electoral success and ideological aims and a public persona as an external projection

13 Preface xiii of the individual. Personal attributes such as oratory, rhetorical usage, charisma, skill in a crisis will impact on each of these. For instance, a prime minister s public persona may be enhanced by the demonstration of skill in a crisis (such as Blair s response to the London bombings on 7 July 2005), and equally, personal political capital will be damaged by poor handling of a crisis. Within an institutional setting whereby actors compete within the party to become leader, a prime minister needs to display personal attributes and skill that will place them above their contemporaries and rivals. Once they have risen to the top, he or she must use another set of skills to manage their relationship with the vanquished and the potential usurpers of the crown. Of course being in the right place and luck often plays a part (Heffernan 2003b: 351). There is no blueprint for prime ministers to conform to, and yet prime ministers are assumed to have considerable political acumen, the tactical awareness to grasp the opportunity to lead, ambition and the desire to achieve long-term goals. Intervention is also a key prime ministerial tool and deciding when to act, and when not to act, is a crucial skill. Indeed, what the prime minister chooses not to do, as much as what to do, can also shape his or her fortunes (such as Gordon Brown s nonelection in late 2007). To understand how leaders may use and stretch the power resources available we need to differentiate between character, personality and charisma. Barber s study of US presidents argued that personality shaped presidential performance whereby the degree and quality of a President s emotional involvement are powerful influences on how he defines the issue itself, how much attention he pays to it, which facts and persons he sees as relevant to its resolution, and finally, what principles and purposes he associates with the issue. (1992: 4) Character relates to the moral or mental qualities and attributes that define an individual, but as Barber points out the term comes from the Greek word to stamp, impress or engrave. Rhetoric, charisma, personality and style also flow from analysis of character attributes. What rhetorical devices did the leaders employ (such as oratory)? Can we consider them charismatic? What was the impact of personality (for instance in management of cabinet colleagues or rivals)? Can we identify a governing style for both prime ministers? So how much does the character of the leader come to the fore to affect, shape and

14 xiv Preface influence political leadership? To become prime minister, individuals in both countries need to first assume leadership of the party (although in Gordon Brown s case, leadership of both the party and country occurred simultaneously). While this is undoubtedly an institutional resource, particular personal capacity is derived from leading the party in addition to being prime minister. Indeed, the successful deployment of personal skills may be crucial in rising to the leadership position in the first place. Chapter 5 explores the personal political skill and political strategy of Blair and Howard. This breaks down into five elements: (1) character the skills relating directly to personality (including background, integrity and morality) of the individual; (2) bargaining coalition skills, people-management and interpersonal relations; (3) heresthetics political manoeuvres; (4) rhetoric political communication skills; (5) strategic and tactical aims. Bargaining, heresthetics and rhetoric relate to the strategies or political skills deployed by the political leader on a micro level. Strategic and tactical aims are the broader visionary skills deployed on a macro level. Leadership of a unitary, centralised and disciplined parliamentary party is a key resource that needs to be used wisely (Heffernan 2003b: 354). Mindful that prime ministers are dependent for their survival on maintaining the support of both the executive and the legislature, this resource needs to be expertly managed to maximise personal capacity. Leaders, while dependent actors, may also enhance their own personal capacity by distancing themselves from rivals and acting autonomously. It is commonplace for leaders to be the embodiment of the party, bolstered by electoral success. Governments now tend to be associated with the leader rather than the party in government (the Blair Government, the Howard Government ). McAllister suggests the trend towards the personalisation of politics has been especially pronounced in parliamentary democracies over the last 50 years. Thatcher and Reagan may have been the most obvious examples, but Pierre Trudeau in Canada in 1968 was the earliest post-war manifestation of a leader surpassing the popularity of his party (McAllister 2007: 571). By personalisation we simply mean a greater emphasis on the leader in terms of power, mediated visibility, focus on personality traits and skills and private lives (Langer 2007: 373). This relatively recent phenomenon is directly related to the growth of mediatised politics (see Mughan 2000). Foley described this propulsion of leaders into the public arena and away from government as spatial leadership and asserted that the possession of a public identity is a political resource in its own right (Foley 2000: 31, 205). 2 While the development of a strong public profile

15 Preface xv for prime ministers is not new (Margaret Thatcher, for instance, was assiduous in cultivating a relationship with voters that went beyond that of the party leader, and Bob Hawke was a ground-breaking example of an Australian prime minister with the personal touch ), it has been taken to a new level in recent years. The greater the public identity, the more powerful the political resource. The contemporary context is well described by Heffernan: An interest in political celebrity, backed by an ever more prevalent interest in process journalism, magnifies the modern prime minister, placing him or her centre stage in key political processes (2006a: 582). Chapter 6 therefore asks if, in the cases of Blair and Howard, personalised leadership increased the personal capacity of the prime minister? How autonomous were these two prime ministers in relation to their rivals, colleagues and party? The final chapter draws the institutional and personal components together to make some concluding observations. Political leadership is a vast and fluid subject. This book, while placing analysis within the existing strands of research, adds a comparative dimension. The book is about how two contemporary leaders managed to remain in power, utilising institutional and personal resources. It offers a perspective on prime ministerial leadership that will, it is hoped, inform and challenge our understanding of the leaders that govern us.

16 Acknowledgements In the course of writing this book I have enjoyed a great deal of support from many people. The original research was funded by an ESRC research studentship, and a Small Research Grant from Canterbury Christ Church University enabled me to finish the final manuscript. I benefitted from intellectual support, advice and feedback from a range of colleagues. In particular, I thank Tim Bale (Sussex), David Bates (Canterbury Christ Church), David Bell (Leeds), Frank Bongiorno (ANU), Claire Donovan (Brunel), Paul t Hart (Utrecht) Richard Heffernan (Open University), Dan Hough (Sussex), Phil Larkin (Canberra), Paul Taggart (Sussex), Kevin Theakston (Leeds), Anne Tiernan (Griffiths), James Walter (Monash), Paul Webb (Sussex), Pat Weller (Griffiths). I thank the many interviewees who generously gave their time to speak with me on and off the record. I am also grateful to former colleagues at the Australian High Commission, in particular Melissa Hitchman and family. The final manuscript would not have been completed without Rebecca Partos who did a great job knocking it into shape and Liz Blackmore and Amber Stone-Galilee at Palgrave Macmillan for all their guidance and patience. Of course the responsibility for all content rests solely with me. Lastly huge thanks to Lindsey and Bea for their help, understanding and encouragement. This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, Len, who truly valued the pursuit of greater knowledge. London, December 2011 Mark Bennister xvi

17 Abbreviations ALP Australian Labor Party ANSTO Australian Nuclear and Science Technology Organisation CIU Cabinet Implementation Unit (Australia) CLP Constituency Labour Party COAG Council of Australian Governments (Australia) CPU Cabinet Policy Unit (Australia) ERC Expenditure Review Committee (Australia) GMS Government Members Secretariat (Australia) GST Goods and Services Tax (Australia) IDC Interdepartmental Committee (Australia) LPA Liberal Party Australia NEC National Executive Committee NMLS National Media Liaison Service (Australia) NPA National Party Australia NSC National Security Committee (Australia) OPD Overseas Policy and Defence Committee OPSR Office of Public Service Reform PBC Parliamentary Business Committee (Australia) PLP Parliamentary Labour Party PMC Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia) PMDU Prime Minister s Delivery Unit PMO Prime Minister s Office PMSU Prime Minister s Strategy Unit SCONS Secretaries Committee on National Security (Australia) SCU Strategic Communications Unit SIEV Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction xvii