A-Level Politics: The Prime Minister and the Executive

This material covers the executive, the part of the UK government component of A level Politics that asks who really governs: the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, ministers and the civil service. It sits beside the category's materials on Parliament and on relations between institutions, so the focus here stays on the executive itself.

The first strand is the sources of executive power. Students separate the royal prerogative from powers given by statute, including secondary legislation made as statutory instruments, and work through the prerogative powers ministers use today: appointing and dismissing ministers, treaties (with the scrutiny added by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010), deploying the armed forces, and the power to call an early election, which the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 revived when it repealed the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The Syria votes of 2013 and 2018 are used to show how far the convention of consulting the Commons on military action really binds a government.

The second strand is ministerial responsibility. Collective responsibility is examined through resignation over a government decision and through its suspension during the European referendums of 1975 and 2016. Individual responsibility is examined through the classic resignation for a departmental failure, the modern pattern of resignations for personal conduct, and the policy/operational distinction that ministers use to avoid resigning.

The third strand is prime ministerial power: the core executive as a network of mutually dependent actors, patronage and its limits, dependence on the parliamentary party (several Prime Ministers since 1990 have left office in mid-term), and the evidence for and against the claim that Prime Ministers have become presidential.

The quiz has twelve questions, most of them short scenarios in which students identify the power, convention or limit at work, plus evaluative items that ask which evidence best supports an argument. The flashcards give eighteen key terms. The written work has eight extended questions, from explaining the 2022 Act to evaluating whether the Prime Minister dominates the Cabinet, each with a reference answer and key points. The oral exam asks questions one at a time and expects answers supported by precise examples.

The material names no current politicians, so it stays accurate whoever holds office. It is practice material and does not reproduce any exam board's questions.

• Distinguish the royal prerogative, primary legislation and secondary legislation as sources of executive power
• Explain the effect of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022
• Explain collective ministerial responsibility and why it has been suspended
• Distinguish resignations for departmental failure and for personal conduct, and the policy/operational distinction
• Describe the core executive and the resources on which prime ministerial power depends
• Evaluate the limits on the Prime Minister and the presidentialism debate

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Prime Minister and executive content of the A level Politics specifications (for example Pearson Edexcel, UK Government component, and AQA).