How do sub-Saharan presidents form and manage their cabinets? Previous research on intra-executive relations has focused predominantly on patterns of patronage. Although informal mechanisms remain relevant in the policy-making process, formal institutions have gained in importance in sub-Saharan Africa since the early 1990s. However, little is known about the link between presidents’ constitutional power and their decisions to appoint, remove and reshuffle ministers. This article addresses this gap by analysing the impact of presidential power on three ministerial-level variables: ethnic cabinet composition, cabinet size and ministerial stability. Based on a framework combining formal and informal institutions, we argue that presidents use formal cabinet roles and relationships to employ informal power-sharing strategies. To capture presidential power, we construct a new index of eight powers specifically related to the presidential-ministerial relationship. The theoretical model is tested with a new dataset of 41 sub-Saharan African countries from 1990 to 2016. OLS regressions show that presidents with greater constitutional power form ethnically exclusive cabinets, increase cabinet size and raise minister stability, albeit the latter effect is not statistically significant. These findings shed new light on the impact of different institutional designs on intra-executive processes in general and, in particular, on presidential actions vis-à-vis cabinet ministers in sub-Saharan Africa.

The aim of this paper is to examine the role of women at the ministerial level in right-wing populist parties. To do so, we analyse the descriptive and substantive representation of women within the Hungarian and Polish right-wing populist cabinets. Using descriptive statistics, we examine the policy areas and relative prestige of their ministerial portfolios. To gain a deeper understanding of the role of women, we further provide an analysis of the roles of Beata Szydło as Polish prime minister and Katalin Novák as Minister without Portfolio for Families, Youth and the Elderly in Hungary. Within this analysis, we investigate their educational and political backgrounds and particularly focus on the gender aspects of their initiated family policies. Our results show that women within right-wing populist cabinets tend to govern traditionally ‘male’ and neutral policy areas; furthermore, they hold portfolios with similar prestige as do the men. The analysis of Beata Szydło and Katalin Novák indicates that women in executive offices are well educated and are more likely to become chief executives when their power is limited. Moreover, the investigation of the family policies demonstrates that they predominantly support the preservation of traditional family roles and strengthen them implicitly.