Ministry (collective executive)

A ministry, in this collective sense, is the full body of government ministers serving under a head of government such as a prime minister, a broader grouping than the cabinet since it can include ministers who do not sit in cabinet meetings, even though the two words are sometimes used as if they meant the same thing. The concept is used above all to name and number successive governments in the United Kingdom and other countries that share its Westminster parliamentary tradition, including India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where each historical government is commonly referred to as a numbered or named ministry, such as a first or second ministry under a given prime minister. Countries differ in exactly when a new ministry is considered to begin: Australia forms a new ministry after every election regardless of whether the same prime minister continues in office, while the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand instead start counting a new ministry only when the office of prime minister itself changes hands. Outside the Commonwealth, comparable bodies go by different names, called an administration in the United States or simply referred to as the government in many other parliamentary systems.