A cabinet reshuffle is when a Prime Minister changes the membership of their top team of 20 ministers who have really important jobs. It can involve promotions or demotions, moving people between departments and even creating new ones. It’s complex and it can have significant impacts on how the government runs its affairs.
The political importance of cabinet reshuffles has long attracted the attention of scholars. This is true even in contexts where the cabinet itself has conspicuously limited clout, such as post-World War II US politics (for example Helms 2005).
So why do Prime Ministers reshuffle their cabinet? The reasons are quite diverse. They can be to refresh the government to avoid seeming stale and to bring in new MPs and younger politicians. They can also be to signal policy shifts – moving ministers around or adding new portfolios can highlight areas of focus. Reshuffles can also be a way to reward party activists or backbenchers who have helped to win elections, and to try and fend off rivals for power within the cabinet.
Because of their complexity and the wide range of factors that are at play, it is difficult to construct general theories about reshuffles. This may be why comparatively little work has been done on this topic. Nevertheless, some excellent recent studies have been produced. For example, Ian Budge’s study of cabinet reshuffles across the world in the 1980s is an outstanding contribution that has all the qualities of large-N comparative analysis.