THE SHADOW CABINET

 The 'Shadow Cabinet' is the team of senior spokespeople chosen by the Leader of the Opposition to mirror the Cabinet in Government. Each member of the shadow cabinet is appointed to lead on a specific policy area for their party & to question and challenge their counterpart in the Cabinet. In this way the Official Opposition seeks to present itself as an alternative government. 

The shadow cabinet is lead by leader of opposition and its members have the designations counterpart to the cabinet e.g.  Shadow Minister for Science, Research and Innovation & Shadow Minister for Business and Industry. They are known as shadow ministers. The emergence of the concept of “Shadow Cabinet” can be seen in the mid-nineteenth century Britain, in the form of a distinct and organized opposition. Gradually a leadership group to coordinate its strategy also came into existence. 

In the second half of the 19th century, the Shadow Cabinet became a recognized entity within British politics. However  British analyst , D.R. Turner states that ‘its use was still limited and its full potential remained unrecognized’. The consolidation of the system of shadow cabinet seen till the period of  1937 when the position of Leader of the Opposition began to receive the salary in Britain. While it was achieved much earlier in Australia.

In 1969 D.R.Turner published a study named “ Shadow Cabinet” in Britain which  according to him , is the first serious study about the concept of “shadow cabinet”. In 1973,  British analyst, R.M. Punnett published a  study “Frontbench Opposition: The Role of the Leader of the Opposition, the Shadow Cabinet & Shadow Government in British Politics”.

According to Turner and Punnett ,originally, shadow cabinet was an informal gathering of senior opposition members meant to discuss government’s actions & possible responses to these. Most important step in the formalization of shadow cabinet is its recognition that a vital role of an opposition was to present clearly a viable alternative to government. It helps to predict the future cabinet after  change in the  government.

According to Punnett, Shadow Cabinet functions like the way Cabinet operated in the nineteenth century. In the beginning unlike Cabinet, Shadow Cabinet had no sub-committees, an informal secretariat, few formal submissions and a much more informal atmosphere overall. According to Punnett, the functioning of the Shadow Cabinet, was conversational than the cabinet. However its meetings were regular.

ROLE OF THE SHADOW CABINET

During its evolutionary phase , it assumed three primary functions :-1)To organize the parliamentary tactics of the opposition;2) To facilitate the Opposition’s position as the alternative government & 3) To provide experience and training for potential future ministers. According to Punnett, the real need of Shadow Cabinet was to ‘managing the business of Opposition’, rather than formulating policy alternatives. 

According to him, while long-term strategies and policy directions were discussed and debated in Shadow Cabinet, the majority of time was spent on organizational matters, such as who would speak in response to introduced Bills, and questions for Question Time.

Punnett argues that, instead of the title ‘Shadow Cabinet’ a term used by Labour party i.e. ‘Parliamentary Committee’ is much more appropriate ,for this institution. This definition of Shadow Cabinet’s functions describes a fundamentally mechanical body, utilised primarily for housekeeping matters.

THE ALTERNATIVE GOVERNMENT

Being in power, the ruling government is having some advantages. It has access to the public service for advice, research & analysis; a higher place in the public’s consciousness and a superior agenda-setting capacity, as a result of its greater access to the news media. It can present itself as an alternative government; by modelling its structure on that of the Government by allocating portfolios to frontbench members. There are two components of acting as an alternative government: arguing the case against the incumbent party and providing an alternative policy vision.

As the concept of Shadow Cabinet evolved, the idea of appearing as an alternative government became the most important task for oppositions. At this point, the difference inherent in the conceptual distinction between an opposition and an alternative government.

The term ‘alternative government ’,a group whose purpose will include putting forward a policy set to provide choice to voters. A reason for the evolution of the Shadow Cabinet is the increasing complexity of government. It is required to impart specialization by opposition members. Members needs comment knowledgeably on all issues, when they have no access to the public service to provide advice and research. 

To avoid confusion, contradiction and ill-informed answers to media questions, oppositions began appointing an official spokesperson for each portfolio area. By so doing, they were able to ensure that the media could identify which opposition member to contact for comments on government announcements and for details of the alternative government’s policies. 

A TRAINING GROUND FOR CABINET

According to Punnett the skills which makes a good shadow minister are not necessarily the same as those which make a good minister in government. A shadow ministers needs to be a good debater & a cabinet ministers needs to be a good administrator. 

In parliamentary, public & media appearances, shadow ministers have a single objective to persuade the electorate that the Government is not performing well and that the Opposition could do better.  Ministers have the goal of convincing the electorate of their own merits and the Opposition’s shortcomings. Ministers are focused on working within their department to formulate ideas & within Cabinet to get those ideas adopted as party policy.

 As Punnett argues, people with debating skills do not necessarily also have administrative ability. The opposition depending on the method by which shadow ministers are appointed , need to decide which to prioritize.

According to the studies, most of the shadow ministers opined that their experience in the Shadow Ministry had been helpful in preparing them for executive leadership. 

Cabinet differs from Shadow Cabinet in terms of skills required, access to power, accountability, workload, media attention and relationships with public servants, counterparts from other jurisdictions and colleagues. 

It is believed that membership of either Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet increased one’s ability to work in the other. The Cabinet ministers found their Shadow experience to be useful  is because of the similarity of processes. Many of the Shadow Cabinet’s procedures are based on those of Cabinet itself , the way meetings are run & the system of reviewing and responding to government legislation. 

In India BJP-Shiv Sena as a largest opposition alliance formed a shadow cabinet in 2005, to keep a close eye on the functioning of the then Vilasrao Deshmukh-led Congress-NCP government in the state.

The Congress also formed the shadow cabinet in Madhya Pradesh in 2015. Apart from political parties, civil society groups & non-governmental organizations too have formed shadow cabinets in the past. While an NGO, Gen Next, had done one such experiment in Goa in 2015, some civil society members announced a similar initiative in Kerala in April 2018.