The core executive and small states: Is coordination the primary challenge?
| Published date | 01 March 2021 |
| Author | Jack Corbett,Wouter Veenendaal,John Connell |
| Date | 01 March 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/padm.12682 |
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The core executive and small states: Is
coordination the primary challenge?
Jack Corbett
1
| Wouter Veenendaal
2
| John Connell
3
1
Department of Politics and International
Relations, University of Southampton,
Southampton, UK
2
Institute of Political Science, Leiden
University, Leiden, The Netherlands
3
School of Geosciences, University of Sydney,
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Correspondence
Jack Corbett, Department of Politics and
International Relations, University of
Southampton, Highfield Campus,
Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK.
Email: j.corbett@soton.ac.uk
Funding information
Australian Research Council (DP160100896);
Australian Research Council (DP160100897);
and the British Academy (SRG1819\191216,
supported by the Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy). Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research (VENI-
451-16-028).
Abstract
This article interrogates three key arguments derived from
the functional approach to studying the core executive: (1)
that coordination is the primary problem that confronts
executive decision-makers; (2) that improved coordination
will lead to better governance; and (3) that linkage problems
dissipate as policy systems consolidate. Drawing on the
experience of hitherto understudied small states, including
112 interviews with political elites, we show how the
effects of country size create governance challenges in the
form of leader dominance, patronage systems and capacity
constraints. Our findings support the call to broaden the
focus of functional analysis beyond its traditional emphasis
on coordination. For scholars of small states we synthesize
existing empirical findings and provide a theoretical justifi-
cation for future work using an adaptation of the core exec-
utive approach.
1|INTRODUCTION
Three decades ago the term ‘core executive’was introduced by Dunleavy and Rhodes (1990) to replace ‘cabinet
government’and better explain central government decision-making. They argued that the phrase cabinet govern-
ment was misleading in assuming a primary coordination mechanism. It had also become a normative assertion about
how government should be run rather than an analytical device for empirical study. Since then, the phrase core exec-
utive has transformed conceptualizations of central government (Elgie 2011) because its focus on the ‘complex web
of institutions, networks and practices surrounding the PM, Cabinet, cabinet committees and their official counter-
parts, less formalized ministerial “clubs”or meetings, bilateral negotiations, and interdepartmental committees’
Received: 16 August 2019 Revised: 10 February 2020 Accepted: 21 May 2020
DOI: 10.1111/padm.12682
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2020 The Authors. Public Administration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Public Admin. 2021;99:103–117. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/padm 103
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