Accountability in Democracy

By Dr. Neha Boruah

Introduction:   The concept of accountability requires careful specification; it is frequently manipulated when put to the service of theoretical models. Defining accountability independently of democracy, since it has a long history before democratic institutions, and by recognising that while accountability can serve democratic values it need not always do so to ensure that rulers do not stray from that path of consistency.           

It is said that ‘Governments are ‘accountable’ if citizens can discern representative from unrepresentative governments and can sanction them appropriately, retaining in office those incumbents who perform well and ousting from office those who do not’. (Przeworski et al., 1999, p. 10). In democratic systems there is a good deal of formal accountability; judges, for example, are formally accountable in most advanced democratic systems, but they are not usually politically accountable.

Implementing Accountability

Accountability relationships need to be appropriately plural and varied, cross-cutting, and sensitive and appropriate. Accountability takes needs to be appropriate to the scale and scope of that discretion, to the standing and qualities that are necessary to exercise that discretion and to the time frame required for decisions.

Accountability in International Politics

The discussion has focused largely on institutions within democratic states, but one area in which there have been increasing demands for accountability. There are major problems in creating a global political culture that commands trust and legitimacy and accountability relationships are only one internally complex group of mechanisms among many in achieving this.

Conclusion

 Accountability allows us to distinguish relationships of accountability from issues of whether they secure certain outcomes, and it encourages us to be sensitive to the distinction between features of political relationships on the one hand, and normative ideals on the other. Accountability plays a complex role in democratic systems, and democracy can press aspects of accountability in ways that destroy the nature of the relationship or produce perverse outcomes. The demand for more democratic accountability for international organisations understates both the range and variety of mechanisms of accountability that already exist within such organisations, and fails to acknowledge that more democracy