Learn English – what does “line ministries” mean

meaningpolitics

Could someone explain it for me. I googled it but couldn't find any useful information.
I would appreciate it if you could tell me what it means.

Example usage…

The antimonopoly committee has oversight responsibilities for antimonopoly issues, but the line ministries are responsible for implementing the antimonopoly laws.

Best Answer

From Revolution at Queen's Park: Essays on Governing Ontario (Ed. Sid Noel, 1997)...

The manner in which the centralization/decentralization issue is structured in terms of cabinet decision-making is closely mirrored in the relationship between the central agencies and the "line" ministries (i.e., ministries such as Health, which deliver programs and services to the public.

I think we can reasonably see the usage as an extension of the more common (in BrE)...

line manager -a person with direct managerial responsibility for a particular employee.

...in that the "line" in corporate management figuratively stretches from boardroom to workers, just as the political/administrative one sits between central government and the general public.


Also note this from Developing Public Policy: A Practical Guide (Bobby Siu, 2013)...

A line department is also known as a line ministry.
The two terms are often used interchangeably; however, in common usage, people tend to use the term department only for an office in the federal government, while ministry is used to refer to offices in a provincial government.

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