DEMOCRACY AS ACCOUNTABILITY :
A. èRepublican form of government:
1. A republic is a form of government in which supreme power rests in
citizens and is exercised by representatives chosen by and accountable to
them.
B. âThe essence of democracy:
1. Citizens must be able to hold leaders or representatives responsible for
their action.
2. That is, citizens must have the ability to judge policies acceptable or
unacceptable and to set guidelines for future action.
C. Accountability assumes a number of conditions that we’ll spend the rest of the
semester examining.
1. ââA major gauge of democracy is how well it facilitates citizen’s holding
representatives accountable.

Accountability is a central piece of good governance. It enables the sharing of power (concept of checks and balance) and the public control over the use of public resources. It contributes to reducing the risk of power abuse and corruptive practices, which in turn is essential to ensure the fulfilment of peoples' basic human rights. Well-functioning accountability relations contribute to build trust in State institutions and processes of managing public affairs. This can be particularly important in situations of conflict.

Accountability describes the relation between state institutions and people, private sector affected by their decisions. It is about the obligation of state institutions, or any other authority with assigned public duties to inform the public, to explain, justify their decisions and actions (information, answerability). And it is about the right and responsibility of the citizens to access information, get explanations, to check, and to pass judgement on the conduct of those with public responsibilities.

This requires a political system, which ideally is providing space for citizen participation and consultation, an independent, pluralistic media, effective parliaments and independent oversight bodies. And it needs mechanisms for sanctioning misbehaviour (enforceability), e.g. with an independent, impartial and accessible justice system.

The SDC promotes a systemic perspective to accountability which includes vertical dimensions of accountability (state institutions being accountable to citizens, private sector) as well as horizontal dimensions (inter-state checks and balances). It applies to national as well as subnational levels, which need to be connected. A solid accountability architecture implies working with multiple actors and institutions (balanced support) and facilitating linkage building among them, for greater leverage of their claims.