Byrne, C and Theakston, K orcid.org/0000-0002-9939-7516 (2019) Understanding the power of the prime minister: structure and agency in models of prime ministerial power. British Politics, 14 (4). pp. 329-346. ISSN 1746-918X
Abstract
Understanding the power of the prime minister is important because of the centrality of the prime minister within the core executive of British government, but existing models of prime ministerial power are unsatisfactory for various reasons. This article makes an original contribution by providing an overview and critique of the dominant models of prime ministerial power, highlighting their largely positivist bent and the related problem of the prevalence of overly parsimonious conceptions of the structural contexts prime ministers face. The central argument the paper makes is that much of the existing literature on prime ministerial power is premised on flawed understandings of the relationship between structure and agency, that this leads to misunderstandings of the real scope of prime ministerial agency, as well as its determinants, and that this can be rectified by adopting a strategic-relational view of structure and agency.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Macmillan Publishers Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in British Politics. The definitive publisher-authenticated version 'Byrne, C. & Theakston, K. (2018) Understanding the power of the prime minister: structure and agency in models of prime ministerial power. British Politics' is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-018-0087-7. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Prime minister; Political leadership; Political time; Structure-agency; Strategic-relational approach |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (Leeds) > School of Politics & International Studies (POLIS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2017 12:35 |
Last Modified: | 15 Nov 2019 15:28 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Palgrave Macmillan |
Identification Number: | 10.1057/s41293-018-0087-7 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:125437 |