Over the years, there has been a shift in the political power from the cabinet to Prime Ministerial posts. There has been an experience of the evolution between the PM, the cabinet and the public service in recent years (Savoie, 2010). The position of a PM is a political post, and it forms that head of government. The cabinet, on the other hand, is made up of high ranking state officials who offer advice to the PM on various issues affecting the nation. The public service is independent of government and is made up of career bureaucrats that are hired based on professional merit. They are not dependent on certain regimes and will survive political transitions. This paper will, therefore, examine the impact the shift in political power from the cabinet towards prime ministers central agencies and legislative staff has on civil service. It will, therefore, study the way this change has affected the Canadian government over the years.

Made up of an estimated 150 departments, the Canadian federal government is headed by a PM. In a bid to manage the divers and large sets of organizations, the federal government is comprised of four major departments. These are the Privy Council Office, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Department of Finance Canada and the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. The office of the PM serves for the political interest of their leader. It is made up of the Prime Minister’s loyalists who are appointed at his or her pleasure. This office helps the PM in achieving his/her goals as a Member of Parliament, political party leader and head of the government (Smith, 2015). The Privy Council office, on the other hand, offers the prime minister with non- partisan and politically sensitive information. This office reports to the Prime Minister. It is headed by the clerk who is a secretary to the cabinet and also doubles up as the head of the public service. The prime minister appoints this clerk. Treasury Board of Canada secretariat refers to a committee of cabinet. It is made up of the treasury board president and four ministers that are directly appointed by the PM. The treasury board secretary heads this secretariat which manages the performance and policies of the administration and t is also responsible for the management of government expenditure. Additionally, it acts as the principal employer. The Department of Finance, Canada, on the other hand, is accountable for assisting the finance minister in coming up with the monetary framework of the government.

By studying the Canadian federal government, it is clear that most of the nation’s political power is vested on the prime minister. For instance, the prime minister’s office is a political one, which is made up of members that are chosen by him or her. This means that the members will serve in the office with favoritism to what the prime minister says. The Privy Council office, on the other hand, is non-partisan and is headed by a clerk that stands for the public service. This clerk is also the secretary to cabinet and directly reports to the PM. This, therefore, shows that the prime minister still has an influence on public service and can use the clerk to drive their agendas. This indicates that the power of the cabinet has been significantly reduced and distributed across central agencies which act on the behest of the prime minister. This has a significant influence on civil service. With all the power on the hands of the prime minister who is a politician, there are both benefits and disadvantages. The most significant advantage of this form of government is that the prime minister will be able to implement quickly.

In this system, the PM is considered the boss and, thus, having in mind that the decision of such an individual is always final, implementations of decisions will be straightforward. This is because the PM will be concentrated on delivering in their manifesto and there will be little resistance from the government. The use of cabinet to implement government policies has for at times proven ineffective. This is because any strategy has to be discussed and various views are taken into consideration before a final decision is made. This makes the process slower, and therefore, service delivery loses its effectiveness. In Canada, for instance, the PM is more reliant on poll stars than the cabinet (Savoie, 2010).  This is because polls represent the views of the public majority and once a survey has revealed the popularity of specific policy, the premier will easily order for its implementation. This simplifies the process that would have involved recommendations from the cabinet and discussions that would have taken a long time. This, therefore, shows that such a shift in power to the PM and other central agencies will help enhance the speed at which government projects are implemented.

However, despite the benefits that are associated with this shift in power, there are also downfalls that come with it. The PM in Canada, for example, no longer relies on the ministers to get a picture of what the voters want (Savoie, 2010). They have, therefore, gone ahead and relied more on public surveys, which reflect more on what the people want to be done as opposed to what the ministers recommend. These polls have been used by the PM to challenge the positions of the ministers. Canada has several public opinion surveys on almost all of the government policies (Savoie, 2010). With this form of governing, the PMs will be able to expand their popularity at the expense of the public. While the public will see the government under the PM’s leadership as being successful in the delivery of the services to its people, in most cases, these projects are done without consideration on their implications and priorities. Public opinions are always popular and do not always reflect on what the general needs. Priorities have to be made, and due diligence should be done before policies are implemented. Therefore, without using the recommendation of the cabinet, projects may be done based on what the public wants. This might end up having severe setbacks in cases of policies that proper preparations had not been considered. This process of policy implementation will, therefore, lead to the stalling of several projects.

A PM will require a majority of votes to be a leader. This means that there will be a section of the public that will have a different view as him or her. In the case of a democracy, the majority will take over leadership. This will, therefore, mean that the majority will elect the PM while the marginalized will have to live by the will of the people. Giving the PM and the central agency more power may lead to a bias in the delivery of services. The cabinet is a non-partisan wing of the government and by having the ability to the delivery of service to the people; they are allowed to give an equal distribution of projects to the public. However, by vesting the power in a political office, the leaders in those positions might reward their political cronies and stronghold by giving them priority in government activities. This will be a disadvantage to those whooppose the party in power. Consequently, this will bring an uneven distribution of resources which will affect the livelihood of the minority.

In a nutshell, this paper has critically looked into implications that are brought about by the shift in the political power from the cabinet to the PM, central agencies and the legislative staff. It has shown that this shift can bring along the advantage of the effective and speedy implementation of government policy. This will be because the office will rely more on public surveys, which reflect on what the public wants. However, this study has also shown the negative implications of this change in that government policies will be used to expand political popularity and not the needs of the people. By ignoring the professional opinions of the cabinet, government policies are then set to fail in some instances. Another effect of this shift will be the bias in the delivery of projects. This can be through the government giving priority to regions where they consider being their political strongholds.

References

Savoie, D. (2010). First Ministers, Cabinet, and the Public Service. Oxford Handbooks Online. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195335354.003.0010

Smith, A. (2015). The Roles and Responsibilities of Central Agecies. Library Of Government, (2009-01-E).

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