Executive leadership in parliamentary democracies: The British prime minister and the German chancellor compared

Abstract

This article analyses and compares the most important features of the British prime ministership and the German chancellorship since 1945/49. Beginning with a comparison of the constitutional provisions relating to the chancellor and the prime minister, it then examines the way in which incumbents came to and departed from office, their means of parliamentary control, their role within the government‐building process and finally their resources and the restraints they face within the ‘core executive’. As a result of the comparative analysis it is argued that existing theoretical proposi tions place too much emphasis on institutional variables and therefore do not sufficiently allow for the highly variable circumstances that influence the prime minister's scope of action at the core executive.