‘Off With Their Heads’: British Prime Ministers and the Power to Dismiss
‘Off With Their Heads’: British Prime Ministers and the Power to Dismiss
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“砍掉他们的头”：英国首相和解雇的权力
DOI：
10.1017/s000712340999007x
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发表时间：
2010
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Nicholas Allen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. King;Nicholas Allen
英国首相任免大臣的权力，可能是他最重要的一项权力。本文探讨了从麦克米伦到布莱尔的首相是如何使用这种权力的。文章认为，在审查总理在实践中所做的计算和误判之前，总理在选择任命或解雇个人时使用的标准。最后，文章分析了首相们行使权力的方式，特别是他们的解雇权，发现撒切尔比其他人更有可能以意识形态或政策为由解雇内阁同僚。文章强调，首相与特别有权势的部长--“丛林中的巨兽”--的关系对于理解英国政府的高层至关重要。
The British prime minister’s power to appoint and dismiss ministers is probably his most important single power. This article explores how prime ministers from Macmillan to Blair have used that power. The article considers the criteria that prime ministers use when choosing to appoint or dismiss individuals from office before examining the calculations and miscalculations that prime ministers have made in practice. Finally, the article analyses the way that prime ministers have exercised, in particular, their power to dismiss and finds that Thatcher was far more likely than others to sack cabinet colleagues on ideological or policy grounds. The article emphasizes that prime ministers’ relationships with especially powerful ministers – ‘big beasts of the jungle’ – are crucial to an understanding of British government at the top.