ABSTRACT
To a degree Prime Ministers make their own workloads. Departments define their ministers’ functions; in contrast, the Prime Minister has few utterly essential duties: responsible for everything, yet obliged to do almost nothing. The government machine accords to the Prime Ministers a high degree of authority regardless of their exterior standing. In theory the Prime Minister has considerable freedom to choose his ministers. The Prime Minister has absolute power to arrange the Cabinet committee system. This is a remarkably wide discretion by international standards: most countries require legal sanction of changes to the system or impose de facto restrictions through the need to square coalition partners. In particular, a Prime Minister must know how to delegate, when to leave ministers alone, when to intervene without causing offence. One personal danger that stalks every Prime Minister is the “folie de grandeur” of high office. A strong Prime Minister needs strong ministers.
