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0 pointstaneq7y ago0 comments

Ha-Ha-Only-Serious response: I've actually been told that ministers are explicitly selected to portfolios that they know nothing about so that they an be an impartial filter for the people working in that area. You don't choose an Information Minister because they're an IT guru, you choose them because they have no knowledge of the subject (and hence no personal preference or bias) and they will just go with whatever the actual experts working 'below' them say.

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8 comments · 1 top-level

m0skit07y ago· 7 in thread

- Then why not directly make one of those experts actually the Minister?

- What if 2 "below" experts have 2 different opinions? Is the Minister supposed to choose randomly?

wpietri7y ago

My understanding is that in a parliamentary system, ministers are selected from parliament. (The US equivalent would be something like making a rule where every cabinet secretary had to also be an elected member of the House of Representatives.) So the expert would have to first run for parliament and be elected.

icebraining7y ago

In the parliamentary system here, only the Prime Minister is selected from parliament. The other ministers are selected by the PM, and don't have to be (and usually aren't) members of parliament.

m0skit07y ago

In all parliamentary systems I know (Spain, France, Morocco) ministers do not have to be selected from the parliament. Parliament is legislative while ministers are executive.

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cwyers7y ago

> - Then why not directly make one of those experts actually the Minister?

If you watch Yes, Minister (and Yes, Prime Minister), the show's thesis is that the system is mostly set up so that the civil service can run things regardless of whatever policies the politicians are trying to implement.

m0skit07y ago

Then what are politicians for?

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ceejayoz7y ago

> What if 2 "below" experts have 2 different opinions? Is the Minister supposed to choose randomly?

Consult (or more likely, have one's staff consult) a third (and fourth, and fifth...) and figure out what the consensus is?

m0skit07y ago

What I meant is that if there's no consensus and the third, the fourth, the fifth... also either have a different proposition/idea or are divided somewhat equally into both sides.

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