MEMORANDUM 43
Diagram 1: Different Types of Accountability:
Attempts at Categorisation
Diagram 1 highlights the complexity of the topic
under investigation. Given this complexity, it is helpful to view
the mechanisms of accountability as a circuit. Accountability
in a representative democracy is, in the strictest sense, linked
to the revocability of a mandate. But electoral accountability
on its own is a very crude form of accountability and as James
Madison noted:
". . . experience has taught mankind the
necessity of auxiliary precautions". The degree to which
a political system is said to ensure accountable government is
dependent on a range of these auxiliary precautions of which Parliament
is just one element. These are the mechanisms of accountability
which, when taken together, can be regarded as a complex circuit.
Diagram 2 attempts to display this circuit for central government,
whilst also highlighting which mechanisms are internal or external
to Parliament.
|
