In constitutional usage in Commonwealth realms, a ministry (usually preceded by the

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...

, i.e., the ministry) is a collective body of

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

ministers led by a head of government, such as a

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is n ...

. It is described by Oxford Dictionaries as "a period of government under one prime minister". Although the term " cabinet" can in some circumstances be a synonym, a ministry can be a broader concept which might include office-holders who do not participate in cabinet meetings. Other titles can include "

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an administrative officer, administ ...

" (in the United States) or "government" (in common usage among most

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

s) to describe similar collectives. The term is primarily used to describe the successive governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which share a common political heritage. In the United Kingdom and Australia a new ministry begins after each election, regardless of whether the prime minister is re-elected, and whether there may have been a minor rearrangement of the ministry. For example, after winning the 1979 general election,

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

(as

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...

) formed the first Thatcher ministry. After being re-elected at the 1983 general election, she formed the second Thatcher ministry, and so on. In Canada and New Zealand, a new ministry is formed only when there is a change of prime minister.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ministry (Collective Executive) Government Commonwealth of Nations Westminster system *

See also

References