Disentangling concepts of ministerial responsibility

Debates on ministerial responsibility have too often gone around in circles . The application of the principle is related to the incidence of resignati ons; analysis considers the reasons given far resignation or; rather more o ften, the reasons given for not resigning. The usual conclusions are that m inisters resign occasionally when their personal involvement is unquestione d and when the prime minister determines that the political costs are less to let the minister go. Bur the ideas remain at a broad level because they relate to all the ministerial activities. This article seeks to disentangle these concepts, developing the ideas in Thompson and Tillotsen's article i n this symposium, to see if a different set of concepts can better define t his old notion.