Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

COBRA and the Cabinet Secretary

Alan Carter in Oxford passed on information about a BBC documentary series (part one was seen on BBC Four last week), The Secret World of Whitehall. I can't find access to it in the US, but the promotional materials might be good teaching resources. Or you could assign students to research the Cabinet Office and the Cabinet Secretary and No. 70 Whitehall Street and the COBRA Committee.

The first of the series focuses on the role of the the Cabinet Secretary and the Cabinet Office, the tip of the civil service iceberg that, it is said, makes government work in the UK. The Speaker of the House of Commons might be more interesting to watch in action, but if you want to follow power in the system, it would be better to pay attention to the Cabinet Secretary.

Like the US President's Chief of Staff, the Cabinet Secretary is described as the power behind the executive. Indeed, Sir Gus O'Donnell, the current Cabinet Secretary, is described as the man who tells the government what it may do.

Along the way, the BBC refers to Sir Humphrey, the Cabinet Secretary in the mid-1980s popular comedy, Yes, Prime Minister (said to be Lady Thatcher's favorite television program).

[If the existence of the Cabinet Secretary is news to you, don't feel left out. It was news to me. None of the textbooks I consulted mentions the position or the Cabinet Secretary. Charles Hauss, in Comparative Politics, Domestic Responses to Global Challenges, does mention Yes, Prime Minister in describing the real life experiences a member of PM Harold Wilson's cabinet.]

Cabinet secretary 'pulls government's invisible strings'

What goes on in the Cobra [Cabinet Office Briefing Room] committee behind the Cabinet Office's doors?

The Secrets of Whitehall reveals it is the cabinet secretary who holds the real power in government…

The Cabinet Office is the secret powerhouse of British politics. With the key task of keeping the government show on the road, it likes to do its work out of the limelight…

Working from one of the grandest offices in Whitehall, the cabinet secretary is the most powerful unelected member of the government… and he pulls the invisible strings across the whole of government…
Profile of Gus O'Donnel, current Cabinet Secretary
A fictional example of how a cabinet secretary wields power, from Yes, Prime Minister

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Labels: bureaucracy, regime, UK