Effective Mechanisms for Accountability for a Functional Democracy (Essay Sample)

‘Without effective mechanisms for accountability, a representative democracy cannot function properly’.
Introduction
Democracy commentators claim that for people to work together in order to achieve prosperity and common good for all, somebody has to lead in making things happen. Nonetheless, democracy seems to be effective in jurisdictions where people have common interests and are ready to abide by the laws established by elected representatives who are accountable to their electorates. This section of the paper seeks to validate the thesis that in the absence of accountability and effective mechanisms to ensure that elected representatives are accountable, a proper functioning of representative democracy cannot be achieved.[Maloy J. (2015). Intermediate Conditions of Democratic Accountability: A Response to Electoral Skepticism. Politics And Governance, Vol 3, Iss 2, Pp 76-89 (2015), (2), 76.]
Accountability in the context of democracy means that the elected government officials or those appointed by the elected officials are responsible to the citizens for their actions and decisions. In order for the officials to be accountable, the principle of accountability and transparency requires that the public is allowed the right to information and that the elected officials are open to scrutiny. This supports the argument by Kramaz & Cosolo that without transparency and accountability, the electorates are ignorant of the democratic choices they are to make, the will of the people will not be accomplished, and the government will become self-serving.[Kramarz, T., Cosolo, D., & Rossi, A. (2017). Judicialization of Environmental Policy and the Crisis of Democratic Accountability. Review Of Policy Research, 34(1), 31-49.] [ibid]
According to Ana, representative democracy is the primary mechanism through which government officials are held responsible and accountable for their actions and decisions while in office, and a way to evaluate whether they have acted corruptly, or illegally when delivering their responsibilities to the citizens. Hence, for the people’s will, through elections – to be meaningful, there must be a protection of basic rights as stipulated in the ‘bills of rights’ for various jurisdictions. In this regard, according to