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Ministers Decide?

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Ministerial Leadership

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

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Abstract

One of Margaret Thatcher’s best-known sayings was ‘Advisers advise, ministers decide’. It is a convenient re-telling of the Westminster myth that officials want decisive ministers. (Marsh et al. 2001, 141, 176). Nevertheless, the empirical work confirms the narrative: ‘as a minister, you make hundreds of decisions’, said David Gauke. ‘Probably in my time, I’ve made thousands of decisions’ (2020: 21).

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References

National and Other Archive

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

The Brexit Witness Archive

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Correspondence to Leighton Andrews .

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

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Andrews, L. (2024). Ministers Decide?. In: Ministerial Leadership. Understanding Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50008-4_9

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