Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors

Transcription

1 Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors

2 Also by Ludger Helms INSTITUTIONS AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY (editor) PARTEIEN UND FRAKTIONEN: Ein Internationaler Vergleich (editor) POLITISCHE OPPOSITION: Theorie und Praxis in westlichen Regierungssystemen POLITISCHE THEORIE UND REGIERUNGSLEHRE (co-editor with Uwe Jun) REGIERUNGSORGANISATION UND POLITISCHE FÜHRUNG IN DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND (forthcoming) WETTBEWERB UND KOOPERATION

3 Presidents, Prime Ministers and Chancellors Executive Leadership in Western Democracies Ludger Helms Heisenberg Fellow and Academic Visitor Department of Government London School of Economics and Political Science

4 Ludger Helms 2005 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN (ebook) OS Transferred to digital printing in 2008.

5 For Niken with love and gratitude

6 Contents List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations ix x xi Part I Introduction 1 Studying Executive Leadership 3 Classifications of Modern Executives 8 Levels of Executive Activity 11 The Choice of Countries 15 Main Currents of Executive Leadership Research 16 Key Questions and Plan of the Book 22 Part II Patterns of Core Executive Leadership 2 The United States: Variations of Presidential Predominance 27 The Political Profiles of American Post-war Presidents 27 Staffing the Cabinet and the White House Office 30 Styles of Presidential Core Executive Decision-making 36 Conclusion 55 3 Britain: Prime Ministers, Cabinets and the Struggle for Supremacy 58 The Political Profiles of British Post-war Prime Ministers 58 Staffing the Cabinet and the Administrative Core Executive 61 Core Executive Leadership in Britain 70 Conclusion 87 4 Germany: Chancellor Dominance and Coalition Rule 90 The Political Profile of German Post-war Chancellors 90 Staffing the Cabinet and the Chancellery 95 Core Executive Leadership in Germany 103 Conclusion 120 vii

7 viii Contents Part III Executive Leadership in the Wider Political Process 5 The United States: Providing Leadership in an Anti-Leadership Environment 127 Presidential Leadership in the Congressional Arena 127 Presidential Leadership and the Influence of other Political Players in the American System 144 The Public Presidency 149 Conclusion Britain: Executive Leadership from the Top 161 Executive Leadership in the Parliamentary Arena 161 The Scarcity of Institutional Barriers against Majority Rule 175 British Governments, the Public and the Media 180 Conclusion Germany: Governing a Semi-sovereign State 191 Executive Leadership in the Parliamentary Arena 191 Executive Leadership in a Semi-sovereign State 205 German Governments, the Public and the Media 214 Conclusion 220 Part IV Conclusion 8 Making Sense of Complexity: Comparative Perspectives and Conclusions 225 Executive Leadership within the Core Executive 226 Executive Leadership in the Wider Political Process 241 Manifestations of Presidentialism in Britain and Germany 252 Concluding Remarks 259 Notes 262 References 283 Index 307

8 List of Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Selection methods of heads of state and heads of government in sixteen West European countries and the United States Position of the head of government within the core executive, dominant forms of government and cabinets, average cabinet life, and institutional barriers against majority rule in seventeen West European countries and the United States 12 Figures 8.1 Dimensions of cabinet government 233 ix

9 Acknowledgements In the course of writing this book, I enjoyed invaluable support from various sources, and of various kinds. Generous financial support was provided by the Thyssen Foundation and the German Research Foundation. The intellectual support and feedback I received on previous drafts and versions of this work included kind advice from a large number of senior colleagues, most of whom could not reasonably be expected to be prepared to share their knowledge with me. As there is, unfortunately, no room here to express my sincere gratitude in more proper terms, I just list those I feel particularly indebted to, in alphabetical order: Klaus von Beyme (Heidelberg), Terri Bimes (Harvard), Bruce E. Cain (Berkeley), Gert-Joachim Glaessner (Berlin), Peter A. Hall (Harvard), George W. Jones (London), Morton Keller (Brandeis), Anthony King (Essex), Peter Lösche (Göttingen), Stephen Padgett (Strathclyde), Gillian Peele (Oxford), Richard Rose (Strathclyde) and Cindy Skach (Harvard). Needless to say, all possible remaining errors are my responsibility alone. A note of gratitude is also due to the anonymous referees who read, and commented on, an earlier draft of this manuscript, and to my publisher, Alison Howson, at Palgrave Macmillan for her much appreciated ability to reconcile this author s fancies and ambitions with the increasingly tough laws of global publishing. LUDGER HELMS x

10 List of Abbreviations BBC BdL BHE BVerfGE CDU CIA CPRS CSU D DP ECB ECHR EEC EOP EMS ERM EU FDP FDR Fed FTSE GDR GOP HEW IG Metall IMF INF JCC MORI MP NATO NEC NHS NSC OMB PDS PLP British Broadcasting Corporation Bank deutscher Länder Bund der Heimatvertriebenen und Entrechteten Entscheidungen des Bundesverfassungsgerichts Christlich-Demokratische Union Central Intelligence Agency Central Policy Review Staff Christlich-Soziale Union Democrat Deutsche Partei European Central Bank European Convention of Human Rights European Economic Community Executive Office of the President European Monetary System European Exchange Rate Mechanism European Union Freie Demokratische Partei Franklin D. Roosevelt Federal Reserve Board Financial Times Stock Exchange German Democratic Republic Grand Old Party (Department of) Health, Education and Welfare Industriegewerkschaft Metall International Monetary Fund Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Joint Constitutional Committee Market and Opinion Research International Member of Parliament North Atlantic Treaty Organization National Executive Committee National Health System National Security Council Office of Management and Budget Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus Parliamentary Labour Party xi

11 xii List of Abbreviations R RPM SES SPD TUC UK US Republican Resale Price Maintenance Senior Executive Service Social Democratic Party Trades Union Congress United Kingdom United States