Scribe of wisdom

Shadow Cabinet

In democracy, the party / alliance, that win majority of seats (based on various formule from country to country) will for the cabinet and Government. The ones who did not qualify to form Government will also be part of the Government as Opposition.

Have you ever think of a system where in

>The leader of opposition will be considered as a Shadow Prime Minister
>For each ministers of the ruling party, the opposition also nominates, another shadow minister
>The ones who were nominated as Shadow Ministers perform the duty to lead on a specific policy area for their party and to question and challenge their counterpart in the Cabinet. In this way the Official Opposition seeks to present itself as an alternative government-in-waiting.

It is interesting system where in opposition create a mirror system of ministers and provide creative alternatives and definitely they may not be able to implement the same. But, they will be able to showcase the same to general public and even influence the actual cabinet to think of alternatives.

Whether Shadow Cabinet exist anywhere in the world?

Answer is – Yes, it is not just a concept.. but it does exist in The United Kingdom Parliamentary System
The shadow cabinet or shadow ministry is a feature of the Westminster system of government.

In Her Majesty’s Offcial Opposition , current leader of opposition is Keri Starmer
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (Shadow Minister for Finance) is Rachel Reeves and so on…

Additional Facts

> Not all opposition frontbenchers are members of the shadow cabinet, which is composed of the most senior opposition members (usually around twenty).

>The leader of the opposition, the opposition chief whip and opposition deputy chief whip are the only members of the Official Opposition to be paid for their opposition roles in addition to their salaries as members of Parliament. The leader of the opposition and the opposition chief whip in the House of Lords also receive a salary.

>Shadow budget is something which is prepared by Shadow Cabinet as an alternative budget and often it serves the purpose of their manifesto, if it is done before an election.

>UK is not the only country having shadow cabinet and some other countries also follow this system in one or the other manner. Eg: Canada, Newzeland, Australia.

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