The Role Skills of Cabinet Ministers: A Cross-National Review
| Author | B. W. Headey |
| Published date | 01 March 1974 |
| Date | 01 March 1974 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1974.tb01473.x |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE
ROLE
SKILLS
OF
CABINET
MINISTERS:
A CROSS-NATIONAL
REVlEW*
B.
W.
HEADEY
University
of
Strathclyde
THE
purpose of this paper is to suggest that existing data on the recruitment
of
political leaders may productively be used to estimate the extent to which leaders
possess the skills required to perform their roles in ofice. This
role
skills
approach
is used in relation to Cabinet Ministers in five Western industrialized democ-
racies-Canada, Australia, Britain, the Netherlands and the United States-and
hypotheses are advanced to explain variance in ministerial
skills.
The concluding
section reviews possible consequences
for
government of ministers being better
qualified to perform some
of
their roles than others.
Studies of the recruitment of political leaders have told
us
a great deal about
their social origins, schooling, occupations, club memberships, the acreage they
own and their political careers. It is tempting to suggest that researchers who have
collected these data may be divided into those who apparently have no theoretical
starting point-theirs are data in search of a theory-and those who enjoy
extreme theoretical certitude, which could hardly be shaken by any amount
of
refractory evidence. Thus, in the former category, there are numerous studies of
a largely descriptive nature, which tell
us
what kinds of men our leaders are, but
which draw few inferences from the evidence collected, except that manifestly
leaders are not socially representative of the populations from which they are
drawn.
In
the latter category are mainly writers with a Marxist orientation whose
theorietical standpoint gives them an
Q
prior;
conviction that business interests
dominate policy making in the Western democracies and who use social back-
ground data to show that middle class persons,
if
not specifically businessmen,
are prominent (dominant
?)
in
Clite groups. The theoretical
assumption
here-the
assumption that underlies the so-called sociology of leadership method-is that
social origins predict policy preferences. It is assumed that if leaders have middle
class backgrounds they will prefer, and generally speaking adopt, policies which
accord with middle class (business
?)
interests.
Recent studies by Lewis
J.
Edinger and Donald
D.
Searing have demonstrated
what non-Marxists have long asserted, namely
that
the assumption of strong
obvious relationships between social background characteristics and policy
preferences (let alone policy decisions) is highly dubious if not definitely false.’
Their data relate to France, Germany, the United States, Israel and Venezuela
and they conclude that, although some social background variables have modest
*
The themes raised
in
this article are much more fully discussed in
British
Cabinet
Ministers:
The Roles
of
Poliricians
in Executire Oflice
(London: Allen
&
Unwin,
1974
forthcoming).
I
would like
to
thank Professors Anthony King and Richard Rose and
I)r
Malcom Punnett for
their comments on an earlier draft. The research was funded by a grant from the Nuffield
Foundation.
L.
J.
Edingcr
&
D. D.
Searing, ‘Social Background in Elite Analysis:
A
Methodological
Inquiry’,
American Political Science Review,
June
1967,
428-45;
Searing,
‘The
Comparative
Study of Elite Socialisation’,
Comparatice Political
Studies,
Jan.
1969,
471-500.
Politial
Studies,
Vol.
Xxn,
No.
1
(66-85)
B.
W.
HEADEY
67
predictive power in regard to some policy preferences, relationships vary from
country
to
country and it is mistaken simply
to
assume that particular variables
(e.g. social class) predict policy preferences in relation to particular types
of
policy issue (e.g. economic issues).
In
this paper, rather than being concerned with social bias in recruitment or
with inferring policy preferences, we shall begin by asking what roles Cabinet
Ministers are expected to perform and hence what
skills
and attributes they
require. Then data
on
their previous political and occupational careers will
be
used to assess the extent to which they possess these skills. Data on their political
careers-length of service in local government and in the executive and the
legislative branches of government-tell
us
to what extent they possess Parlia-
mentary skills, ‘political weight’, committee skills, negotiating and brokerage
skills, etc. Data on educational and occupational backgrounds are similarly used
to estimate both ministers’ substantive or specialized knowledge
of
particular
policy areas and their ability to serve as the chief executives of large complex
organizations.
Clearly, it is hazardous in the case of any individual minister to infer that
because he has a particular career background he possesses particular skills. An
ex-business executive may have acquired
no
managerial skills and a long serving
Parliamentarian may still be a duffer at the despatch box. However, provided we
confine ourselves to drawing
collective
portraits
of the ministers of different
countries, it would not seem implausible to make the kinds of inferences suggested.
It is presumably true, as a general rule, that experienced Parliamentarians have
more highly developed Parliamentary skills than ministers who are only found a
seat in Parliament after their elevation to cabinet office and that experienced
executives and organisation men are relatively well qualified to perform manage-
ment roles in government departments.
Why be interested in ministerial skills? The answer must be that one assumes
that the skills and attributes ministers bring to office have important consequences
for the performance of government. We normally assume that the heads of
organizations-army generals, trade union bosses, managing directors and
chairmen of boards-have considerable influence
on
the efficiency and success
of their organization and we reward them accordingly
in
terms of pay and status.
If organizations perform well their heads receive the credit, if they perform poorly
it is often assumed that the rot starts at the top. In view
of
such assumptions, it is
a little surprising that students of political recruitment have not generally adopted
a role skills approach and have tended to confine themselves
to
making incidental
comments on the relevance of leaders’
skills
to the tasks in hand.’ Recruitment
agencies and researchers concerned with military, civil service and business
recruitment normally adopt a role skills perspective and it
is
suggested that
students of political recruitment could usefully do the same.
THE ROLE
SKILLS
OF
MINISTERS
Roles are defined by the expectations of other actors. These expectations attach
to the statuses or offices held by individuals rather than to the individuals them-
selves. The following is an attempt to list the roles of Cabinet Ministers and the
However, a role
skills
approach
is
adopted
in
R.
Rose, ‘The Making
of
Cabinet Ministers’,
British
JournalofPoliticalScience
Oct.
1971,39344.
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