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Contributions to Political Science
Birgit Bujard
The British
Prime Minister
in the Core
Executive
Political Leadership in British European
Policy
Contributions to Political Science
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11829
Birgit Bujard
The present work is the author’s Ph.D. thesis (Dissertation). It was accepted in 2017 at the
Universität der Bundeswehr München (Neubiberg, Germany) under the title “The British
prime minister in the core executive. An analysis of prime ministerial political leadership in
British European policy from James Callaghan to Tony Blair using the example of European
monetary policy”.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer International Publishing AG part of
Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
This book is based on my doctoral thesis, which I submitted in November 2016 at the
Universität der Bundeswehr München (University of the Federal Armed Forces
Munich) and defended in July 2017.
My academic interest in British politics began about 20 years ago with several
seminars on Tony Blair’s New Labour government which then had just come into
office in the United Kingdom.
What particularly interested (and still interests) me was the United Kingdom’s
relationship with the European Union as well as the country’s view of the European
integration process. Britain’s long-standing scepticism about the European project
and its reluctance to fully engage with its European partners in the EEC and EU have
always puzzled me. Therefore, the attempt to understand this approach to European
integration better as well as the role of the prime minister in it has led me to select
this topic for my doctoral dissertation.
What I hope this book shows is that the roots for the British public’s vote in 2016
to leave the European Union lie not merely in the (European) policies of various UK
governments as well as the political discourse in Britain of the past few years but run
deeper than that. To understand the outcome of the 2016 referendum, a look further
back in the UK’s history of European integration has to be taken as well, which the
study at hand does. Moreover, this book illustrates that a prime minister’s political
leadership in this policy field is more constrained than public, media and academic
debate sometimes suggests.
v
Acknowledgements
vii
viii Acknowledgements
Ure: Prime ministers and the media: Issues of power and control; M. J. Smith: The
core executive and the resignation of Mrs Thatcher, Public Administration, M. J.
Smith: Reconceptualizing the British state: Theoretical and empirical challenges to
central government, Public Administration), Pan Macmillan (J. Bruce-Gardyne,
Ministers and mandarins: Inside the Whitehall village; P. Stephens, Politics and
the pound: The Tories, the economy and Europe; H. Young: This blessed plot:
Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair), The Financial Times, Oxford University
Press (S. Bulmer & C. Lequesne (Eds.): The member states of the European Union;
M. Bennister: Blair and Howard: Predominant prime ministers compared,
Parliamentary Affairs; S. George: An awkward partner: Britain in the European
Community; S. Wall: A stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to
Blair), SAGE Publishing (R. Heffernan: Prime ministerial predominance? Core
executive politics in the UK, British Journal of Politics and International Relations;
R. Heffernan: Exploring (and explaining) the British prime minister, British Journal
of Politics and International Relations); St. John’s College, Cambridge (P. Cradock:
In pursuit of British interests: Reflections on foreign policy under Margaret
Thatcher and John Major) and Taylor & Francis (T. Bale & K. Sanders: ‘Playing
by the book’: Success and failure in John Major’s approach to prime ministerial
media management, Contemporary British History; P. Daniels: From hostility to
‘constructive engagement’: the Europeanisation of the Labour Party, West European
Politics; E. Dell & Lord Hunt of Tanworth: The failings of cabinet government in mid
to late 1970s, Contemporary British History; B. Donoughue: The prime minister’s
day, Contemporary British History; B. Jones, D. Kavanagh, M. Moran & P. Norton
(Eds.): Politics UK; D. Shell & R. Hodder-Williams (Eds.): Churchill to Major: The
British prime ministership since 1945).
I would like to thank HarperCollins Publishers for the permission to reproduce
copyright material from the following books:
Kavanagh, D. & Seldon, A., The Powers behind the Prime Minister, The Hidden
Influence of Number Ten, 2000, 2nd edition, London: HarperCollins. Reprinted
by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © Dennis Kavanagh & Anthony
Seldon 2000
Major, J., The Autobiography, 2nd edition, 2000, London: HarperCollins. Reprinted
by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © John Major 1999, 2000
Mandelson, P., The Third Man, Life at the Heart of New Labour, 2010, London:
Harper Press. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © Peter
Mandelson 2010
Thatcher, M., The Downing Street Years, 2011, London: Harper Press. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © Margaret Thatcher 1993
To Palgrave Macmillan I am grateful for the permission to reproduce copyright
material from these publications:
Elgie, R., Political Leadership in Liberal Democracies, 1995, Basingstoke/London:
Macmillan Press, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.
Acknowledgements ix
Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents, family and Tobias Grimm as
well as my friends for their support and their patience when having to listen to my
lectures on UK European policy and the political leadership of the British prime
minister.
Contents
xi
xii Contents
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
List of Abbreviations
xvii
List of Tables
Table 5.1 British turnout at European elections between 1976 and 2007 . . . 68
Table 9.1 Size of the governmental party and position on Europe
1976–2007 . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 185
Table 9.2 Rebellions by the parliamentary party in government
1976–2007 . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 186
Table 10.1 Newspapers’ attitudes to EMS/ERM and support
for government policy 1978 . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 202
Table 10.2 Newspapers’ attitudes to ERM, EMU and support
for government policy 1989 . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 213
Table 10.3 Newspapers’ attitudes to EMU and support
for government policy 1991 . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 224
Table 10.4 Newspapers’ attitudes to EMU and support
for government policy 1999 . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . 235
Table 11.1 Prime ministerial political leadership in European monetary
policy 1976–2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
xix
Chapter 1
Prime Ministerial Political Leadership
and British European Policy: An
Introduction
The role of the prime minister in British politics has for long been a much debated
issue in political science (e.g. Crossmann 1963; Shell and Hodder-Williams 1995;
Hennessy 2001; Blick and Jones 2010). Assessments of the premierships of Marga-
ret Thatcher and Tony Blair, who have been considered to exhibit a dominant
leadership style (e.g. Seldon 2008; Young 1989), corresponded with research in
the past years which has argued that contemporary politics in liberal democracies has
become increasingly personalised and that heads of government today have more
power resources and autonomy than their predecessors, which gives them a larger
capacity to act (e.g. Foley 1993, 2000; Mughan 2000; Poguntke and Webb 2005;
Peters et al. 2000: 7). But have a premier’s options to shape his government’s
policies actually increased and made his leadership in the core executive more
dominant? What about prime ministers such as James Callaghan or John Major,
who have rather been seen as exercising a form of collective leadership? To make a
contribution to this debate the study at hand analyses the political leadership of the
UK prime minister (PM) in European policy. The PM appears to be well placed to
exert dominant political leadership in this subject area. Compared to other heads of
government such as the German chancellor, for example, he has to deal with fewer
constraints when trying to influence the government’s decision-making process in
general. This is, for instance, the case if one considers single party governments1 in
contrast to coalition governments or a centralised state instead of a federal one.2
Moreover, national leaders have a special role to play in the European context as they
1
Despite a Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition from 2010 to 2015, the British first-past-the-
post-electoral system has since 1945 tended to facilitate single party governments.
2
Particularly under the Blair government there were changes in this respect as it furthered a process
of devolution giving more political autonomy to the regions Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
But the British political system remains less federally structured than, for instance, the German one.
take decisions with EU-wide relevance in the European Council. In the past years the
euro crisis has contributed to the institution becoming even more of a key arena of
European politics with heads of state and government taking decisions with consid-
erable long term impact on member states (Brincker and Wessels 2012: 65). In
addition, despite strengthening the roles of the European Commission, the European
Parliament as well as the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Lisbon
Treaty, the heads of government and state have at the same time included the
European Council in a rising number of treaty articles and allowed it to take binding
decisions (Wessels 2016: 87).
Defining Britain’s role in Europe3 and the resulting European policy have been
difficult issues which every British government has had to confront since the end of
World War II. At the beginning of the European integration process in the 1950s, the
United Kingdom could not make up its mind to join, still seeing herself as one of the
great international powers and believing there was no need to become part of some
form of regional project. Lord Carrington (1988), Margaret Thatcher’s first foreign
secretary, characterised the British position at that time as: “We wished the club well
but it wasn’t for us” (312). It took many years before Britain became a member of the
European Community (EC). Yet even after joining in 1973, the country remained to
be viewed as somewhat of an “awkward partner” (George 1998: 1). Differences
between Britain and the other member states have concerned many policy fields but
have been particularly pronounced with respect to the ultimate concept of European
integration with the UK having strong reservations about establishing a federal
Europe and pooling sovereignty with other states (Rose 2001: 213).
The currently (2018) governing Conservative Party (Tories) has been divided
over Europe since the late 1980s. In light of the rising electoral success of the United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) a number of strongly Eurosceptic Conserva-
tive party members continuously put pressure on then Prime Minister David Cam-
eron to change his European policy by demanding a referendum to determine
whether Britain should remain part of the European Union. In January 2013 Cam-
eron conceded this. However, the referendum was to be preceded by a renegotiation
of Britain’s relationship with the European Union (EU) (Cameron 2013). In
February 2016 Cameron announced that he had achieved a renegotiation of Britain’s
EU membership in terms of financial protection, economic competitiveness, migra-
tion, safeguards for national parliaments as well as an exclusion from the goal to
reach an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe. An in/out-referendum on
Britain’s EU membership would be held on 23 June 2016 (Cameron 2016). Due to
intraparty pressure the PM had previously agreed to free ministers from the obliga-
tion of collective responsibility during the referendum campaign (Quinn 2016). This
led to him campaigning for Britain to remain a member of the European Union,
while high-profile members of his party campaigned to leave. A divisive campaign
over Britain’s place in Europe was initiated and either side tried to persuade an
3
‘Europe’ is, of course, strictly speaking not synonymous with ‘the EU’ or ‘the EC’. But in common
jargon, and in this study as well, they are treated as if they were interchangeable.
1.2 Purpose of this Book 3
electorate, which for long has been less than enthusiastic about Britain’s European
integration and in parts Eurosceptic, of its arguments for or against Britain’s EU
membership (Bujard 2016: 595–596; on the public’s Euroscepticism, see Curtice
and Evans 2015). The campaign was accompanied by a print media coverage which
was strongly Eurosceptic on the part of the largest selling press titles and showed a
pro Leave bias (Levy et al. 2016). It ended on 23 June 2016 with the British public’s
decision to leave the European Union after 43 years of membership. With a turnout
of 72.2%, 51.9% of voters voted to leave while 48.1% voted to remain. As a result of
the vote David Cameron announced his resignation as prime minister. He was
succeeded by the long-term home secretary Theresa May (Bujard 2016: 596–597,
599). Her task now was to unite her party as well as a deeply divided country.
Moreover, apart from organising the exit itself the government had to develop a plan
as to what Britain’s future relationship with the European Union should look like. It
became clear that the vote had not ended the divisions in the Tory Party over Europe.
After the referendum three factions emerged in the party: those who preferred a hard
Brexit (leaving the single market and ending freedom of movement), those who
favoured a soft Brexit (remaining in the single market, even if it meant fewer options
to curb freedom of movement) and those in the middle who thought access but not
membership of the single market was the right way forward for the UK (Helm 2016).
Despite these divisions, the government in March 2017 formally triggered Article
50 of the Lisbon Treaty in order to begin the exit negotiations with the European
Union later that year (Bujard 2017: 586). Yet, regardless of the decision to leave the
European Union, Britain’s relationship with the other EU members and the
European Union itself is likely to remain a key part of policy-making for any British
prime minister and government, at least for the foreseeable future.
This episode of contemporary British politics illustrates the difficulties European
integration poses for a UK government even though the country has been a member
of the EC/EU for more than 40 years. At the same time it demonstrates that the prime
minister is not wholly unconstrained in shaping his government’s European policy
even if he leads a single party government. Factors remain that might inhibit his
options to set policy. In addition to the parliamentary party the premier’s political
leadership may be influenced by the behaviour of other actors in the executive as
well as by British media and public opinion. These are all factors which can offset
the PM’s chances to exert dominant political leadership.
To answer the question whether a prime minister’s options to shape his govern-
ment’s policies have increased and made his leadership of the executive more
dominant or not, a systematic comparison of the political leadership of several office
holders is useful. Political leadership is here understood as “the extent to which
heads of state and heads of government, that is, the individuals who occupy the most
prominent positions of authority in the state structure, are able to determine the
4 1 Prime Ministerial Political Leadership and British European Policy:. . .
outcome of the decision-making process” (Elgie 1995: 4). The definition indicates
that political leadership is influenced by the individual in office—that is his prefer-
ences and agency. The British political system has shown to be flexible in accom-
modating various leadership styles over the years, ranging from premiers taking a
predominant role in their government to those focusing on a collective form of
leadership in collaboration with fellow ministers. A longitudinal analysis of several
office holders avoids presenting a static snapshot of prime ministerial political
leadership and provides the possibility to acquire more solid findings. Given that
the premier’s role is likely to differ between policy fields, a wide-ranging assessment
of prime ministerial political leadership covering several policy fields is necessary.
To take a first step to enable such a broad evaluation, the analysis at hand focuses on
European policy. Taken together with studies analysing other policy fields it can
contribute to a more comprehensive picture of prime ministerial leadership in Britain
in the future.
When studying political leadership, a decision has to be made on which political
level to focus. This study examines the prime minister’s role in the British executive.
It does not address the question of leadership of the executive as a whole in the
political system. Nor does it focus on the PM’s political leadership at the European
level, although his activities here are considered as far as they are relevant to his
leadership of the domestic executive.
The present study analyses how the prime minister can shape European policy.
The questions to be answered are:
(a) Can the political leadership of the British prime minister in European policy be
characterised as prime ministerial predominance or as collective leadership?
(b) Has there been a trend towards more prime ministerial predominance between
1976 and 2007?
In the analysis at hand the political leadership of Prime Ministers James Callaghan
(1976–1979), Margaret Thatcher (1979–1990), John Major (1990–1997) and Tony
Blair (1997–2007) in European policy is studied. As European policy is a wide-
ranging subject area, in which the prime minister’s role is likely to vary as well, the
study has to limit its focus. It does so by centring on European monetary policy, which
is a fitting subject area for such an analysis as the head of government here plays a key
role in the domestic decision-making process. Moreover, it is a subject area which has
gained prominence in the European integration process over the years—at first with
plans to achieve closer cooperation, then with a single currency. Between 1976 and
2007 significant developments in European monetary integration took place. Key
decisions had to be taken, most notably on the establishment of the Exchange Rate
Mechanism (ERM), the centre piece of the European Monetary System (EMS), and
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). They comprise the cases for this analysis.
There are several reasons to select these four office holders for comparison: firstly,
the ways in which they have led their governments appear to have varied signifi-
cantly. Blair and Thatcher have often been characterised as having exhibited a
particularly dominant leadership in office. In contrast, Major and Callaghan have
frequently been described as having shown a more conciliatory and collective
1.3 Current Research, Methodology and Structure 5
leadership (e.g. Hennessy 2001; Rose 2001). Their party affiliation does not appear to
have affected their leadership style: Blair and Callaghan were Labour prime ministers
whereas Thatcher and Major were Conservative party leaders. Their stances on
European integration have varied, ranging from pragmatic pro-European to more
Eurosceptic. Yet there have not only been variations between the prime ministers’
views of European integration. Sometimes they have also changed their attitude to
Europe within a premiership.
Apart from their varying leadership styles and political orientation, the compar-
ison allows for a longitudinal study covering 31 years (1976–2007). Yet one caveat
has to be mentioned on the comparability of the four premierships. As with any
longitudinal comparison the temporal context needs to be considered. It has to be
taken into account that the process and the mechanisms of European integration have
changed over the years and that European policy has received a more prominent
place in British politics. During James Callaghan’s premiership European integra-
tion did not play such an important role for the British government as it did during
the premierships of his successors (for a similar assessment by an early 1990s study,
see Christoph 1993: 529). This is because the member states have widened and
deepened European integration by transferring competences in more and more
policy fields to the European level. Moreover, in the European context “the PM’s
role has grown, partly out of choice and partly because the EU itself is increasingly
driven by the European Council” (Allen 2013: 120). This has implications for the
comparison of the four prime ministers’ political leadership, as they have become
more directly involved in European policy-making due to their membership of the
European Council. But, while changes to the political context have to be considered
when drawing conclusions from the analysis, it makes the comparison of Callaghan,
Major, Thatcher and Blair with view to their political leadership and their role in
European policy no less significant and the analysis of the factors shaping prime
ministerial political leadership in a specific policy field remains of value.
In the second half of the twentieth century the executive was primarily analysed with
two opposing concepts in British political science. Depending on which was seen as
the dominant institution in the executive, there was either cabinet or prime ministe-
rial government (see Rhodes 1995: 11–26 for an overview of the debate). Various
works from a historical or political science perspective have dealt particularly with
the UK premiership (e.g. Hennessy 2001; Blick and Jones 2010). Margaret
Thatcher’s and Tony Blair’s premierships in particular have been popular objects
of research due to their apparently predominant political leadership styles
(e.g. Seldon 2008; Young 1989). John Major’s political leadership has been studied,
too—but often to portray it as an example of what was considered ineffective
leadership (e.g. Kavanagh and Seldon 1994 for a general assessment; Clark 1999
as an example for a critique of Major’s political leadership as insufficient). Few
6 1 Prime Ministerial Political Leadership and British European Policy:. . .
4
Heffernan (2005) compares the offices of British prime minister and US-President and concludes
that the latter has to govern with more institutional constraints than the former.
5
Moreover, when the thesis was submitted in 2003 the British government’s decision on joining the
Eurozone was still pending so the case study for Blair could not be completed at the time.
1.3 Current Research, Methodology and Structure 7
exception of Tony Blair’s Chancellor Gordon Brown.6 The memoirs display differ-
ences in the extent and detail to which they report about developments in government.
The recollections of Douglas Hurd and Nigel Lawson, for example, provide valuable
information on decision-making processes in the British political system in general
and also contain detailed accounts of the Thatcher administration (and in Hurd’s case
of the Major government, too) (Hurd 2009; Lawson 1992). On the other hand, some
memoirs do not say much about the political process in British government and seem
to be geared primarily towards the interests of the tabloid media as the memoir of John
Prescott, Blair’s deputy prime minister (Prescott 2008).
For the Callaghan and the Thatcher period cabinet memoranda (official material
distributed to cabinet members for their sessions) and cabinet conclusions (official
protocols of the meetings) from 1976 to 1988 could be used. They were closed to the
public but have recently been made available by the British National Archives.
Furthermore, semi-structured expert interviews were used. In 2010 the author
interviewed ten former officials or members of prime ministerial political staff. The
interviewees were selected as their accounts can function as a corrective to those
given by politicians in their memoirs and provide a different perspective on the issues
in question. Most interviewees worked for successive governments and prime min-
isters and were closely involved with European policy decision-making. Sir Michael
Butler (1979–1985), Lord David Hannay (1985–1990), Lord John Kerr (1990–1995)
and Sir Stephen Wall (1995–2000) were British Ambassadors to the EC/EU. In this
post they worked with several prime ministers. Lord David Williamson (1983–1987)
and Sir Brian Bender (1994–1998) were like Sir Stephen Wall (2000–2004) in charge
of the Cabinet Office European Secretariat (COES), responsible for the coordination
of European policy in the British executive and also advisory body to cabinet and
prime minister. Sir Nigel Wicks was not only head of Margaret Thatcher’s Private
Office in the mid-1980s, but as Treasury official also closely involved in the nego-
tiations of the British opt-out from the third stage of EMU at Maastricht in December
1991. Lord Bernard Donoughue was a member of James Callaghan’s Policy Unit and
Lord Roger Liddle of Tony Blair’s Policy Unit—the prime minister’s think-tank in
No. 10 Downing Street. Lord Tom McNally was Callaghan’s political secretary. The
three were political appointees in contrast to the others who were career civil servants.
Interviews with former British diplomats from the ‘British Diplomatic Oral History
Programme’ (BDOHP)7 were used, too. These cover various aspects of UK foreign
policy, including information about processes in the domestic core executive and
about the European policy of successive governments.
A substantial number of publications are available on British European policy in
general (e.g. George 1998; Gowland et al. 2010) and European monetary policy in
particular (e.g. Stephens 1997; Thompson 1996). Yet few studies cover the role of
6
His memoirs were published after this study was completed.
7
The BDOHP was initiated in 1995 and is available to the public through the Churchill Archives
Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge (https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/bdohp/,
accessed 8 March 2018).
8 1 Prime Ministerial Political Leadership and British European Policy:. . .
individual actors such as the premier in the policy field (for a journalistic perspective
on this see Young 1999). The position of the major political parties on Europe is
dealt with in some detail (e.g. Gowland and Turner 2000; Baker and Seawright
1998). In addition, there is research on the voting behaviour of government MPs
since the 1970s which includes European policy decisions and gives an overview of
the unity of the parliamentary parties in their attitude to this policy field (e.g. Norton
1980; Cowley 2005).
Accounts of UK European policy frequently address Euroscepticism in the British
media. However, such case studies tend to cover short time periods (e.g. Carey and
Burton 2004; De Vreese 2001). Longitudinal studies on the British media’s position
on European integration are rare. An exception is a study by George Wilkes and
Dominic Wring, in which the authors analysed the media coverage on Europe
between 1948 and 1996 (Wilkes and Wring 1998). Due to the lack of longitudinal
research on this topic the author decided to conduct her own media analysis. This
analysis focuses on specific case studies, as the scope of this study (1976–2007) is too
large to be covered completely. These case studies comprise key decisions in
European monetary policy the UK government had to take. The aim was to evaluate
in how far the premier can influence media coverage and the media’s evaluation of
his European monetary policy. To test whether a prime minister could influence the
media coverage in the relevant case, his parliamentary statement on it, which includes
his arguments for the decision, was analysed. The newspaper coverage by selected
papers 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the event was studied to analyse whether it
changed, which could then be attributed to the prime minister’s influence. For a
comprehensive look five national newspapers were chosen: the Financial Times, the
Guardian, the Independent,8 the Daily Mail and the Sun. This selection includes
papers with diverse readerships, pro-European and Eurosceptic outlooks and various
party political agendas. The examination was done by a summarising qualitative
content analysis using inductively developed categories (for an overview of qualita-
tive content analysis, see Mayring 2000).9 The categories were sourced from either
PM’s parliamentary statement. They were then used to structure the content of the
media coverage and analyse whether it changed over the course of the 4 week period
due to the premier’s framing of the issue in question in parliament.10
In Chap. 2 the theoretical basis for the analysis and the policy field is introduced.
The main approaches to the study of political leadership are reviewed. Approaches
focusing on personal or structural aspects are contrasted with those combining both.
Moreover, concepts of the British political system are identified. They include the
classical Westminster approach as well as a contrasting model: Patrick Dunleavy’s
8
The Independent was founded in the 1980s and therefore not used in the Callaghan case study.
9
For more on the summarising qualitative content analysis (‘zusammenfassende qualitative
Inhaltsanalyse’) see Mayring (2010: 67–85); for more on inductive category development
(‘induktive Kategorienbildung’) see Mayring (2010: 83–85).
10
For more on structuring with regard to content (‘inhaltliche Strukturierung’) see Mayring (2010:
98).
1.3 Current Research, Methodology and Structure 9
and Roderick Rhodes’ core executive concept. In addition, concepts for the assess-
ment of the UK prime minister’s political leadership in government decision-making
are considered. These include Martin J. Smith’s model of prime ministerial power
and Richard Heffernan’s thesis of prime ministerial predominance. On the basis of
these, a modified model of prime ministerial power is developed. It is used to study
the four PMs and their political leadership in European monetary policy. The aim is
to identify whether their leadership in this particular area showed a form of prime
ministerial predominance or collective leadership.
Chapter 3 provides an overview of European monetary policy and the British
response to it between 1976 and 2007 with a particular focus on the two case studies:
the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), the centre piece of the European Monetary
System (EMS), and Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
Chapters 4–6 introduce the leadership environment, in which the premier con-
ducts his political leadership, and his resources. In Chap. 4 the main features of
British European policy-making and coordination are introduced. An overview of
the institutional organisation of the executive and legislature in the subject area is
given. In Chap. 5 the attitude to European integration of the actors covered in this
study is looked at: the four prime ministers, their parliamentary parties, the media
and the public. In Chap. 6 an overview is given of the resources a premier has at his
disposal to lead his government. These can be of an institutional nature, meaning
they are available to an incumbent due to the office he holds. This includes, for
example, the prime minister’s option to use two-level politics to influence policy-
making at the domestic level due to his position in the European Council (Sect. 6.1).
The resources can also be of an individual nature, thus are based on his personal
preferences and agency (Sect. 6.2).
Chapters 7–10 comprise the case study analysis. The prime minister’s political
leadership in European policy analysis covers four key aspects:
First of all, their institutional resources, already introduced in the previous
chapter, are specifically defined with regard to European (monetary) policy
decision-making (Chap. 7).
Secondly, the agency and activities of other actors in the European policy core
executive apart from the PM are looked at more closely. Actors dealing with
European monetary policy decisions such as the chancellor or the foreign secretary
and their departments are considered. Sometimes these also include ministers who
influence the decision-making process though they have no departmental responsi-
bility to do so. Additionally, the prime minister’s options in handling these actors
who potentially constrain his room for action are analysed and how he can attempt to
broaden his leeway in that respect (Chap. 8).
Thirdly, the position of the governing party in parliament and its voting behaviour
on European policy is analysed to understand in how far it affects the prime
minister’s room for manoeuvre in the policy field. A premier’s resources to influence
his parliamentary party concerning European policy-making are taken into account
as well (Chap. 9).
Fourthly, an analysis of parliamentary statements on particular European mone-
tary policy decisions by the four prime ministers and their adoption by the national
10 1 Prime Ministerial Political Leadership and British European Policy:. . .
press is conducted. The aim is to evaluate in how far the premier can influence media
coverage and the media’s evaluation of his European monetary policy (Chap. 10).
Lastly, the different aspects which potentially influence a premier’s political
leadership in European (monetary) policy set out before are brought together and
evaluated (Chap. 11).
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Chapter 2
Theoretical Framework: Prime Ministerial
Political Leadership in the British Political
System
Political leadership is possible in practically all political and social contexts and not
linked to a particular office (Helms 2005a: 737). Being a socially constructed
concept there are competing definitions of political leadership (Elgie 1995: 2; for
various definitions, see Elgie 1995: 3). Here it is understood as “the process by
which governments exercise control over public policy decisions. . . Political lead-
ership deals with the question of who controls the outcome of public policy decisions
within a state and how they do so” (Elgie 1995: 4). To be more precise, this study
analyses the prime minister’s political leadership within the British executive. There
are different normative and empirical approaches to analyse how and to what extent
a head of government can influence political decision-making through political
leadership (Helms 2005c: Sect. 2.2) Normative concepts focusing on what consti-
tutes ‘good governance’ and ‘good government’ can be dated back to Platonic
philosophy. Today, approaches to the study of political leadership using normative
aspects still exist and are often found in research on individual political leaders such
as a normative preference for the leadership style of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the
USA (Helms 2005b: 17). As the research questions posed here ask what the pre-
miers’ political leadership in European policy actually looked like and not what it
should have, an empirically-oriented approach to analyse political leadership is used.
The following chapter provides an overview of empirical approaches. They can be
divided depending on which factor(s) are seen to shape the political process most
strongly: (a) personal attributes, (b) structural aspects, or (c) the interaction of both
(Helms 2005c: 34).
Leader-centred approaches to the study of political leadership focus on personal
attributes. They concentrate on the leader, his work and his influence on the political
decision-making process (Helms 2005b: 17). The nineteenth century ‘Great Man’
school of political leadership argued that the leader’s personality was the most
important factor to explain political processes (Elgie 1995: 5). Today such a view
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