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Public Accountability: The Three Principles Of Democratic Accountability

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traditional bookkeeping function in public administration into a much broader from of public accountability (Harlow; 2002).Public accountability is both an instrument and a goal. What started as an instrument to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public governance, has gradually become a goal in itself. 2.3 Principles of Democratic Accountability Democratic accountability is based on three fundamental principles that allow citizens and their representatives claim holders to hold to account those public or private officials that are responsible for service provision, in other words, the duty bearers. The three principles are answerability, responsiveness and enforceability. These principles will help assessors to identify which conditions are present or can effectively improve accountability relationships. As noted, assessors must ascertain whether the principles are observed in concrete interactions between claim holders and duty bearers. Answerability gauges the extent to which a government carries out its duty to explain and justify its decisions to the public. Much of the effectiveness of answerability is linked to how claim holders articulate their demands, but it is also related to the space, capacity and willingness of officials to answer for their actions. For instance, electoral rules (district or local electoral formulas) or organizational rules or the recruitment, supervision and removal from office of public servants define who elected
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