A Critical Appraisal Review of the Literature on Accountability in a Liberal Democracy Essay

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Accountability in a Liberal Democracy: A Critical Appraisal

A liberal democracy is defined as a political philosophy by which people have inalienable rights to power and free elective process of their country. In other words, a liberal democracy is a political system characterized with a free election, and political decision made by an independent legislature, a multiple political system, and independent judiciary. In a liberal democratic system, people have the right to voice a decision making process of their country with application of a majority rule and vote a candidate they wish to run the political office. A liberal democracy is a democracy of the people and for the people.

Typically, liberal democracy gives the citizens the overall strategy to improve the political economy of their country through a better government. Under a liberal democratic rule, people have the right to vote and participate in the civil engagement to protect their rights. By actively participating in the government activities, people are able to protect themselves from the ruling elites. Moreover, people can participate in removing an elected president through a vote of no confidence of 2/3rds majority vote in the House of Legislature and House of Senate. By participating in political activism, people are able to protect their civic rights from a corrupt government. (Mulgan, 2003).

However, the concept of accountability is synonymous with democracy. In democratic system, political leaders can be held accountable for the misdeed carried out when in office. (Schmitter, 2007). Political accountability refers to the way political parties, citizens, parliaments as well as other political actors provide reward, feedback or sanctions to officials enacting public policy. Typically, well function accountability is able to provide incentives for government for the interest of all citizens.

Objective of this paper is to provide a critical appraisal of literatures on accountability in a liberal democratic system in developing countries.

A Critical Appraisal Accountability in a Liberal Democracy

In a modern democratic governing, actors in a public domain are responsible in making decisions regarding the common goods, and methods they are held accountable for their conducts. (Peter, & Authur, 2012). Borowiak (2011) argues that accountability is an instrument to control governing authorities, and effectiveness of liberal democracy depends on a meaningful accountability. Cheung & Leung (2007) explore the strategy that China employs to legitimize the governmental rule through governmental accountability. The authors define the concept accountability as the method where the government serves the people interest through democracy, absence of corruption, and integrity. In essence, accountability is a basic feature of democracy in China, which assists in boosting the economy. More importantly, the political accountability strengthens the rule of law and aim to safeguard people's interests.

O'Donnell, (1998) argues that horizontal accountability is very critical for a smooth running of a democracy. Horizontal accountability is defined as the existence of state agencies, factually willing, legally empowered and enabled to take actions on impeachments or criminal sanctions on state political actors. (Chen & Hsu, 2014). Typically, the state agencies are responsible for the horizontal accountability. Moreover, the non-state actors such as party secretariats, media organizations, business associations, trade union confederations, large capital firms and mass social movements are capable of exercising the horizontal accountability. In a liberal democratic country, political parties play a critical role in enhancing or subverting the horizontal accountability. In a presidential system of government, the most importantly aspect of horizontal accountability is separation of powers and checks and balances. Nigeria is one of the examples of a developing country that practices horizontal accountability because the country is practicing the presidential system of government. The separation of power and check and balances are clearly entrenched in the constitution where the executive is separated from the legislature and both the executive and legislature are separated from the judiciary. The principle of checks and balances is another aspect of horizontal accountability where each branch of government checks on the power of other branches of government to limit their powers. For example, the congress can remove the president through impeachment while the judiciary can declare the action of judiciary as unconstitutional. (Samarasinghe, 1994). Moreover, the executive president can veto the law passed by the congress.

Despite the benefits of horizontal accountability for the effective implementation of a liberal democratic system, however, the principle of horizontal accountability is lacked in many developing countries that practice the liberal democracy. Typically, free and fair election is the essential features of vertical accountability. While some developing countries hold election regularly, however, these countries have intermittent or weak horizontal accountability.

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O'Donnell, (1998) points out that many Latin American countries have recently become politically democratic. For example, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Columbia, Venezuela and Chile lack the concept of horizontal accountability. Moreover, freedom of speech and free press that permit citizens to voice their social demands are weak in many developing countries. While the horizontal accountability is very effective for a successful implementation of liberal democracy, however, weakness of horizontal accountability can correspond a weakness of liberal democracy.

Matlosa (2007) contributes to the argument by pointing out that a strong and well function sustainable and liberal democracy depend on the effective function of political parties. The political parties are the crucial actors that enhance an effective democracy. Political parties are defined as organized groups formed for controlling the state power, articulate the group's interest and direct a country's economic development. Typically, availability of multi-political party institutions is effective strategy that can assist people to hold political actors accountable in a liberal democratic society. However, in many developing countries, political parties find themselves in crisis. Since 1990, many African countries have integrated multipart system in their constitutions, and majority of South African countries have liberalized their democratic system to allow an effective freedom of speech, and free press.

African countries that practice a liberal democracy use a periodic election to allow a political competition, and this has become a norm in the African region. Typically, a liberal democracy plays a critical role in the democratic process of countries such as Mauritius, and South Africa. However, Angola and Botswana still lag behind in the democratization wave despite their democratic process within the last few years. Similar to many developed countries that use election process to hold political actors accountable, some developing countries have just started using free and fair election as a political weapon to hold political actors accountable. (Speijcken, 2011). A recent Nigerian presidential election in 2015 is a good example of how people have used the open and free ballot system to vote out the incumbent government out of power. In Nigeria, the PDP (People Democratic's Party) had controlled the Nigerian leadership position for more than two decades. However, the PDP ruling was characterized with high-profile corruption, and series of civil insurgence that nearly torn the country apart. When the presidential election took place in May 2015, people voted out the PDP and voted in the APC (All Progressive Congress) as a new government. The outcome of the presidential election in Nigeria reveals that people's vote is one of the effective tools to make political institutions accountable. Without strong political parties, "politics is reduced to unbridled opportunism and the overt self-serving interest of individual politicians who may derail the nation-building process and the democracy project." (Matlosa, 2007 p 21).

Kellman (2004) support this argument by pointing out that:

"without strong political parties and political institutions that are accountable and effective, that can negotiate and articulate compromises to respond to conflicting demands, the door is effectively open to those populist leaders who will seek to bypass the institutions of government, especially a system of checks and balances, and the rule of law' (Kellman 2004 p 15).

In Kenya, the application of multi-party system has enhanced the accountability process in the country. In order words, the political parties play an important role in enhancing political accountability, and mutual trust in Kenya. (Speijcken, 2011). A report presented by the OECD (2014) reveals that Peru and Mali have integrated the principle of accountability in their budget process. In Mali, the government has set up the Office of the Auditor General to audit the method a government has spent the public fund in a given year. In Mali, the parliament and civil society can call up the government and ask them to account for all their political activities. In Peru, the decentralization process makes the intervening different actors in promoting the multi-actor accountability. (OECD, 2014).

Conclusion

The paper carries out a critical appraisal of the review of the literature that explores the political accountability in a liberal democratic system. Since 1990s, many developing countries have implemented the multiparty democratic system to enhance accountability of political stakeholders. Similar to the developed countries that entrench the principle of accountability in their democratic system, many developing countries have started adopting multiparty system to enhance an accountability of political actors. More importantly, the application of rule of law, free election, and free press are the effective tools that developing.....

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