Skip to main content

The Ministerial Role: Activism and Agency

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Ministerial Leadership

Part of the book series: Understanding Governance ((TRG))

  • 91 Accesses

Abstract

There have been a number of academic categorisations of the role or roles of a government minister, but former ministers, as practitioners, have an activist view of the role, which is bound up with a sense of purpose and motivation, and to a degree a sense of ethics and values. There is also the polar opposite in some of the Ministers Reflect interviews: a sense of how a poor minister behaves. As well as their informal, acquired understanding of the role, ministers also have the guidance of Ministerial Codes, and at UK level, the Cabinet Manual, which seek to formalise rules for some aspects of the ministerial role.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

The Ministers Reflect Archive of Interviews Published by the Institute for Government

General Bibliography

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leighton Andrews .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Andrews, L. (2024). The Ministerial Role: Activism and Agency. In: Ministerial Leadership. Understanding Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50008-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics