Government Departments

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS. While differences of internal organization and of cultural development between coun tries have produced inevitable differences—superficial or pro found—in their governmental machinery, it will be found under modern conditions that common political, social and economic needs tend to give the same functions to Government departments in one country as another, however diverse their theory of the proper arrangement and scope of governmental organs.

In comparing different countries, homogeneity is suggested by the nomenclature of their Government departments, but this is apt to be deceptive. For example, the English Home Office may reasonably be thought to correspond to the Ministry of the In terior in nearly every other country. This is largely true, but the Home Office has many f unctions which elsewhere are com monly assigned to a Ministry of Justice, and the control of local government, which in France (for example) has been said to be the main function of the Minister of the Interior, is in England (so far as control exists in England) at least as much for the Ministry of Health, as successor of the Local Government Board. Again the Ministry of Public Works is in France responsible for railways, with which the English Office of Works has no concern.

In England, the normal mode of creating a new department in modern times has been by statute, e.g., the Local Government Board Act, 1871, and the acts creating Ministries of Transport and Agriculture in 1919, but the constitutional necessity for this arises—so long as existing statutory functions are not touched— only from the need of a parliamentary grant for the resulting expenditure. Indeed, in the drafting of statutes care is usually taken, if the department of a secretary of State is involved, to preserve the position that the King can appoint a fresh secretary of State without parliamentary authority. A good example is the Secretaries of State Act, 1926, turning the secretaryship for Scotland into a secretaryship of State : the act is expressed to operate as from the date when His Majesty shall first appoint another secretary of State after the act passes, if he shall be pleased to do so. With two or three exceptions all statutory functions of a secretary of State in England are assigned to a (or the) secretary of State simply, without distinction between one department and another, on the constitutional view that the King's secretariat is one, although in practice the work is divided by administrative arrangements periodically varied. So in France, although jurists differ concerning the basis of the practice, it is recognized that the Government of the day can increase or reduce the number of departments and redistribute their functions at will, subject to parliamentary control of the necessary funds. Transfers of duty from one department to another are made, in modern English practice, by statute or (perhaps more often) by order in council authorized by statute, but some transfers, e.g., from one secretary of State to another, can in principle be made without formality.

If functions are distributed on a theoretical basis, between various departments, this must be either according to the per sons affected by performance of a function or according to the purpose for which it is performed. For example, assuming Min istries of Shipping and of Health, which should be responsible for the health of seamen? Questions like this closely bear on the efficiency of Government, but they have small interest for the public—except those members of it affected personally by some fault in distribution—and no nation popularly governed has made a serious effort towards embodying a scientific answer in its legislation. A re-grouping on practical lines, halving the number of departments, has been effected in Italy between 1923 and Lord Haldane's committee on the machinery of Government, re porting in 1918, suggested a re-grouping of functions for England, but this has not been carried out—and whether the particular suggestions made were sound remains a matter of opinion. The central recommendation was re-grouping according to the services performed, not according to the persons affected, but exceptions were perforce admitted. Thus—to take the instance already used—if shipping be nationalized the department managing it (and not a separate Ministry of Health) must be responsible for the health of its employees : this applies to any nationalized serv ice, as is seen with the army and the post office.

Practical exigencies, constitutional accretion, statute, order in council, tradition and convention have played their part in mak ing the English distribution more haphazard than that of most other countries, but in this article an attempt is made to use the English departments as a key (since their names at least will be familiar to English speaking readers), mentioning under each any points of special interest relating to the Government depart ments of European countries.

The Treasury or Ministry of Finance.

Among English Government departments the first place is taken by the Treasury. This is the office responsible for the management of the national revenue—although the actual collection of revenue is made (apart from that which is earned, e.g., by the post office) through the commissioners of inland revenue and the commissioners of cus toms and excise—two departments which, while closely con nected with the Treasury, are formally distinct. The Treasury has an exceptional relation to the House of Commons, and the posi tion has come to be recognized that no expenditure can be in curred by any department of Government (with certain excep tions not affecting the general proposition) without previous Treasury sanction. Moreover, when money is voted by parlia ment, the department to which it has been granted does not get it automatically. The money has still to be collected from the taxpayer, and meantime the department and all others—in short the business of Government as a whole—must be financed. This involves extensive borrowing, to be repaid as taxes are forth coming, and this borrowing in the money market is a specific function of the Treasury. Similarly, the negotiating of long term loans, at as favourable a rate as the national credit will secure, is a function of the Treasury, which is thus in close and necessary touch with the city as well as with parliament. Historically, the Treasury sprang from the accounts department of the Planta genet kings, the early "exchequer," which was associated with the court of exchequer in dealing with the revenue. In later days, a lord high treasurer was appointed, whose office was placed in commission in the 17th century. The Treasury has since been controlled in name by a board of lords commissioners, of whom the prime minister is usually (though not of necessity) first lord, but the commissioners have formal duties merely. The chan cellor of the exchequer, assisted by the financial secretary of the Treasury, is the minister in charge of the Treasury's daily work, which is divided under three main heads. These are supply—that is, that side of its work which relates to public expenditure ; finance—that side which is related to the raising of loans, to cur rency, banking and the like, including since 1918 the important and complicated question of international debts ; and establish ments—that side which deals specifically with the problems of "management" of Government departments, salaries and wages, accommodation, and the like. The field of action of the Treasury covers Scotland as well as England, but the constitution of sepa rate parliaments for Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State has naturally led to the establishment of separate Finance Min istries. The title "Ministry of Finance" is used in all countries of the British empire except Australia, and is the accepted English translation of the titles given in all European countries to the department having functions generally similar to those of the British Treasury.