Acaretaker government, also known as acaretaker regime,[1] is a temporaryad hocgovernment that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed.[2][3] Depending on specific practice, it consists of either randomly selectedmembers of parliament oroutgoing members until their dismissal.
Caretaker governments inrepresentative democracies are usually limited in their function, serving only to maintain thestatus quo, rather than truly govern and propose newlegislation. Unlike the government it is meant to temporarily replace, a caretaker government does not have a legitimatemandate (electoral approval) to exercise aforementioned functions.
Caretaker governments may be put in place when a government in aparliamentary system is defeated in amotion of no confidence, or in the case when the house to which the government is responsible is dissolved, to be in place for an interim period until an election is held and a new government is formed. In this sense, in some countries which use aWestminster system of government, the caretaker government is simply the incumbent government, which continues to operate in the interim period between the normal dissolution of parliament for the purpose of holding an election and the formation of a new government after the election results are known. Unlike in ordinary times, the caretaker government's activities are limited by custom and convention.
In systems wherecoalition governments are frequent a caretaker government may be installed temporarily while negotiations to form a new coalition take place. This usually occurs either immediately after an election in which there is no clear victor or if one coalition government collapses and a new one must be negotiated.[4] Caretaker governments are expected to handle daily issues and prepare budgets for discussion, but are not expected to produce a government platform or introduce controversial bills.
A caretaker government is often set up following a war until stabledemocratic rule can be restored, or installed, in which case it is often referred to as aprovisional government.
Heads of caretaker governments are often referred to as a "caretaker" head, for example "caretaker prime minister".
Similarly, but chiefly in theUnited States,caretakers are individuals who fill seats in government temporarily without ambitions to continue to hold office on their own.[6] This is particularly true with regard toUnited States senators who are appointed to office by thegovernor of theirstate following a vacancy created by the death or resignation of a sitting senator.[7] Sometimes governors wish to run for the seat themselves in the next election but do not want to be accused of unfairness by arranging their own appointments in the interim. Also, sometimes they do not wish to be seen as taking sides within a group of party factions or prejudicing of aprimary election by picking someone who is apt to become an active candidate for the position.
At one time,widows of politicians were often selected as caretakers to succeed their late husbands; in a phenomenon known as "widow’s succession." At the beginning of the 20th century, it was one of the most effective ways of getting women intoCongress, even though the widow may have originally only been supposed to act as a placeholder for her dead husband and was only expected to serve for a brief period.[8] The widows may have been selected to honor the deceased member, tap voters’ sympathy, or exploit name recognition to hold onto a seat while more conventional candidates prepared for the real campaign. It also may have helped some of the women grieve and make up for the sudden loss of income in a world where few worked outside the home. Among first-time candidates for the US House of Representatives from 1916 to 1993, 84% of the widows won, while only 14% of other women were victorious. The trend was strongest when women were rarer in politics; 35 of the 95 women who served in Congress through 1976 were congressional wives first.[9] Political scientistDiane Kincaid wrote that "statistically, at least, for women aspiring to serve in Congress, the best husband has been a dead husband." Academics Lisa Solowiej andThomas L. Brunell called it "arguably the single most important historical method for women to enter Congress."[10]
Nevertheless, this custom is rarely exercised today, as it could be viewed by some asnepotism.
InCanada and most other English-speaking countries, the more widely accepted term in this context isinterim, as ininterim leader. In Italy, this kind of premier is the President ofGovernment of Experts.
