politics

Until about thirty years ago, analysing the U. K executive was fairly straightforward. The executive was based in London and the vast bulk of its business was conducted in Westminster and Whitehall.

The core executive is the heart of the U.K state and the key driving force in U.K politics. The executive is not a government department, like the foreign and commonwealth office or the department of health, and it is not even a government office like the prime ministers office. Instead, it is a concept developed by political scientists to mark out those parts of central government that are not involved in one particular policy domain, or in supporting one specific part of government, but instead and possibly directing government policy across the whole range of business. Adopting a functional perspective, the U.K executive may be defined as cabinet (including the prime minister), Cabinet committees, major government law offices and those central elements engaged in managing the governin...