Where does the decision making power lie in the British executive: with the Prime Minister, the Cabinet or the Civil service?

... The Executive Where does the decision making power lie in the British executive: with the Prime Minister, the Cabinet or the Civil service? To understand the relative distribution of power inside the British executive we must define the Executive and it's role; Rhodes provides a useful definition of the Core Executive as 'all those organisations and procedures which co-ordinate central government, and act as the final arbiters of conflict between different parts of the government machine.' The domain of the question covers only three groups of actors inside the Executive set and they must be identified to make useful progress. The identity of the first actor is self-evident being the incumbent prime minister yet the second and third groups require more careful explanation. The Cabinet is broadly identified as the group of senior ministers with responsibility for a specific department and who meet with the Prime Minister on a regular basis. Ministers

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