Cabinet (politics)

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Meeting room of the cabinet in the Reich Chancellery, Berlin (around 1900)
First meeting of the Bouffier II cabinet in the cabinet of the Hessian state parliament

In politics, a specific government of a ( federal ) state is usually referred to as a cabinet , more precisely the government team , i.e. the respective composition of the head of government and his ministers and other high-ranking state officials as a whole. In addition, but much less often, the term cabinet is also used to designate other leading staff, not a government, at the highest or lower state level or at the head of a high authority (then usually a federal authority ).

Concept history and national usage

The cabinet is named after the chamber ( cabinet '[back] room') in which a ruler once received his closest collaborators. The head of cabinet was then the liaison to the ruler, a function that is known today as the prime minister ('chairman of ministers'), chairman of the council of ministers, prime minister ('first of ministers'), government president, head of government or chancellor - originally the chancellor was the head of the Court Chancellery , i.e. the monarch's supreme private secretary. How the position of this post in relation to the cabinet and the head of the cabinet or the college of ministers develops depends on the development of parliamentarism and the political system in the respective country. Such a position as Chancellor and Head of Cabinet, for example, still has the head of government of the Principality of Liechtenstein , who is the only member of the government to be taken into office and duty by the Prince.

In the early days of the middle-class members of the government, only individual, particularly high-ranking ministers actually had the right to speak directly to the monarch, while others had to make entries through the chancellery. This dates back to the earlier period when the Secret Cabinet (secret: the Prince's personal room) was the consultation room to which only the Secret Councilors had access. This priority related to those matters that the autocrat wanted to be dealt with immediately (cabinet matters ) , hence these ministers were also called the cabinet ministers . One such body was the Austrian State / Reichsrat from Maria Theresa. In the United States, for example, today the United States Cabinet is a round of the President with only the most important ministers, but a few other leading non-ministerial officials (such as chief of staff, UN ambassador). At the moment, however, it is customary for all ministers to belong to the cabinet.

In French, the government team, the Council of Ministers, was originally referred to as the ministry , only later does the term ministry refer to the portfolio , i.e. a special area of ​​responsibility or the department (therefore there are ministers without an explicit ministry and ministers without a portfolio ), and then to the civil servants of a certain minister or the authority as a whole, as the word ministry is used today - while the Council of Ministers is also used today to the multilateral gathering of ministers with a common portfolio, i.e. relevant bodies, not institutions of a government.

In the French language, which is also in the European Union is used, the term cabinet ( cabinet ) still not the government but the staff - so the closest collaborators - a conductor authorities or politician. Hence, a head of cabinet is the “right hand” of a politician or senior official. Accordingly, there is a Cabinet du président de la République as the President's private secretariat, and every French ministry has a cabinet . And so all commissioners , but also the President of the European Parliament and directors-general of the administration of the individual EU institutions have cabinets - the institution with the function of government (i.e. the college of department heads) is called the commission .

In Austria , the Council of Ministers (or the [ federal ] government ) is still called the Council of Ministers in the French style . The [ Federal ] Chancellor as head of government is - in the sense of a primus inter pares ('first among equals') - as a member of the Council of Ministers, he can - but does not have to - also head a ministry, as does the Vice Chancellor. With Cabinet but the Office of the Chancellor, which is the Cabinet of the Federal Chancellor , the Vice Chancellor and each minister referred. The head of the cabinet of a head of government or minister and the cabinet employees are neither part of the government team nor necessarily part of the civil service ; there are also diplomats , lawyers or free political advisors . However, the government also includes - not formally, but de facto - the state secretaries , these are additional managers who have special supervision but have no instructions over ministerial officials.

Where the state model follows English custom, the cabinet usually refers to the entire college of ministers (see Westminster system ).
In Germany , the word cabinet does not appear in the Basic Law . It is still used frequently and designates the government ( Federal Cabinet , State Cabinet ).

In monarchies such as the Netherlands , the use is also common, as it can be used to designate the government without the monarch, who often nominally belongs to the government but does not pursue day-to-day politics. In addition, the cabinet system is widespread there, in which the entire government has to make decisions, not (also) the head of government or individual ministers as in Germany.

In Switzerland, there is no immediate reshuffle of the Federal Council , the college of department heads, when there is a new election , but the appointment is fixed for four years each, so the government is constantly being redesigned.

In the Anglo-Saxon as well as in the Nordic political system, the strict one-to-one assignment of ministers to ministries is not common in continental Europe; a ministry ( department ) is often equipped with several ministers of equal rank.

Cabinet nomenclature (governments)

Today, cabinets are typically named after the head of government, and in the event of restructuring - after new elections, but also for other reasons - numbered, for example, the Papandreou  I cabinet held office under Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou from 1981, when he won the election and took office, until 1985. Papandreou held one more office further legislative period until 1989 ( Papandreou  II cabinet ), and again from 1993–1996 ( Papandreou  III). His son's 2009–2011 cabinet is accordingly called Giorgos Papandreou's cabinet , and today also includes an Andreas in the older cabinets for the purpose of differentiation.

Sometimes the cabinets are simply numbered, e.g. B. in Canada (see list of Canadian cabinets ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ more precisely: In locks, the cabinet is a space between two rooms that does not have its own entrance from the hallway, i.e. it can only be reached through the main rooms (chambre) . Cabinet . In: Karl Ernst Georges: Small German-Latin concise dictionary. Hanover and Leipzig 71910 (reprint Darmstadt 1999), Col. 1409.
    Compare Antichambrieren ('audition, make a request') on the aspect of the accessible anteroom.
  2. ↑ so in England in the 18th century was often unclear who should be considered a prime minister who First Lord of the Treasury (, First Lord of the Treasury ', Chancellor of the Exchequer), the Lord Privy Seal (Lord Privy Seal), the Secretary of State (Secretary of State ) or someone else who acted as the main minister in government. see. List of British Prime Ministers
  3. ↑ Secret Cabinet . In: Meyers . 6th edition. Volume 57, p.  462 .
  4. ^ For example, a ministère with six functions in the Revolutionary Constitution of 1791 : Justice, Intérieur, Contributions et revenus publics, Marine, Guerre, Affaires étrangères , cf. fr: Ministère français #Historique
  5. ↑ Le cabinet du président de la République , elysee.fr
  6. ↑ cf. Query in: Federal governments since 1920 , parlament.gv.at → Who is who → Federal government
  7. ↑ Explanation of the term "cabinet" in the government primer on bundeskanzlerin.de ;
    Volker Busse, Hans Hofmann: Federal Chancellery and Federal Government. Tasks - organization - working method. 5th, revised and updated edition, Heidelberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8114-7734-6 .
    see. also minutes of the Federal Cabinet 1949–1964 at the Federal Archives