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8 - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2012

Samuel Berlinski
Affiliation:
Inter-American Development Bank
Torun Dewan
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
Keith Dowding
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
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Summary

We have provided an in-depth and detailed investigation into the length of tenure of British ministers. We have examined some of the elements of the job of a British minister and provided some discussion of what British prime ministers look for in their cabinets. We have collected extensive data on the hiring and firing of ministers in the period 1945 to 2007. That data, gathered over several years, records the length of ministerial spells, the background characteristics of those who served in government, and measures of their performance. This is the first book-length study of such micro-level data on British political careers and contributes to a new and engaging literature that looks at issues of accountability in parliamentary democracy in a more extensive and quantitative manner than previously. In analysing that data we have tried to account for the length of tenure of ministers, and provide some new insights into the nature of ministerial accountability.

When looking at the departure of ministers we have done so in two different ways. We examined descriptively the forced departure of ministers either due to disagreements within cabinet, or due to some scandal or other issue. We coded these forced exits into a series of categories which can be considered the proximate reasons for their resignation. The proximate reason is the story behind the removal. In order to get a handle on the proximate reasons for removal we also needed to code for resignation issues that did not lead to a forced exit.

Type
Chapter
Information
Accounting for Ministers
Scandal and Survival in British Government 1945–2007
, pp. 173 - 178
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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  • Conclusion
  • Samuel Berlinski, Torun Dewan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Keith Dowding, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: Accounting for Ministers
  • Online publication: 05 April 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511980046.009
Available formats
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Conclusion
  • Samuel Berlinski, Torun Dewan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Keith Dowding, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: Accounting for Ministers
  • Online publication: 05 April 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511980046.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Samuel Berlinski, Torun Dewan, London School of Economics and Political Science, Keith Dowding, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Book: Accounting for Ministers
  • Online publication: 05 April 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511980046.009
Available formats
×