NGOs AS A PART OF ACCOUNTABILITY CHAIN IN SERBIAN POLITICS
INTRODUCTION
At the heart of good governance are the ideas of accountability, transparency and participation. These ideas have grown in popularity after democratic changes in 2000; hence it could be said that concept of accountability is relatively new in Serbia. Accountability has different meaning in different political systems, but in general “by accountability is meant the imperative to make public officials answerable for their behavior and responsive to the entity from which they derive their authority. Accountability also means establishing criteria to measure the performance of public officials, as well as oversight mechanisms to ensure that standards are met.”
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Citizens are at the highest level of the accountability chain in Serbia and all authorities are accountable to the citizens. “Genuine elections – no matter how free and fair – are insufficient in ensuring that elected officials are accountable and responsive to citizens.” Therefore, citizens need to participate in political processes between elections and parliaments are citizens’ institutions that should initiate and enable participation. “As the representative branches of democratic governments, parliaments are meant to provide citizens with links to the policy-making process and with methods of holding the executive branch to account.”
While the Government is accountable to the Parliament, on the bottom of this structure are various public bodies, agencies, etc. to which the Government assigns power and responsibilities through regulations and policies. Independent bodies working together with the Parliament on oversight function play an important role in the chain of accountability.
“Participants can discharge their accountability functions effectively only if they know to whom they are accountable and for what. Likewise, they can hold others accountable only if they understand who is accountable to them and for what.” In Serbian political practice, public officials do not have understanding of these matters or they try to avoid responsibilities. Only at the highest level – Government towards Parliament - participants
What is government? Government is the governing body of nation, state, or community. Government determines the way any group of people are ran. There a several different types of government used all around the world. In the United States for example, uses a type of government that has three different branches of power. The Legislative Branch is the law making branch. The Judicial branch is the courts and the low enforcement. Lastly, the Executive branch is the presidential branch. “Each has its own responsibilities and at the same time they work together to make the country run smoothly and to assure that the rights of citizens are not ignored or disallowed.” (Osborne) Usually, governments break up the responsibilities into two or more groups. Two very influential writers wrote about their views on government; Lao-tzu and Machiavelli. These writers were in very different times which makes it very interesting to compare their views. Lao-tzu and Machiavelli had very different views on the ultimate purpose of government, the obligations of government leaders, and the main work of the state.
The Legislature power is a power that makes law for regulation of peoples and private organisations conduct, also structure and power of public authorities which is ran by the Parliament. This includes bodies such as House of Lords, House of Commons and the Queen. The Executive power is the administrative branch of government that implements the law, which are made by legislators. Bodies that regulate this are the Queen, Prime Minister, other Ministers, Civil service, police and armed forces. Introduction of the legislation, controlling security and public services, supporting prosperity and conducting the external relation of the state are the roles of the executive power. The Judiciary is the power that
When looking into the ideas of political theorists it is important to the use of political concepts that may play an important role in what the theorists are suggesting and also how they may affect the relationship between to state and the individuals living within a state. The concepts that will be looked at within this essay are: power, authority and also accountability.
Most of the agencies of the federal government share their functions with related agencies in state and local governments
Politics and political participation ensures that the people who use their right of political participation choose a governmental leader and policies theses leaders would pursue that will express the people's concerns and interest. Because linkage institutions represent what people prefer the “ linkage institutions transmit America’s preferences to the policymakers in government” (Government in America, 11) Linkage institutions and policy making institutions work together by in linkage institutions, media and elections provide to the policymakers in the policymaking system problems and interest that can make its way to the policy agenda which receives the serious attention of public officials and those involved in politics. By working together,
Parliament is designed to hold the executive accountable; therefore it goes about this by various means of government scrutiny, such as Prime Minister’s Question Time. In addition, Parliament is expected to perform a legislative function, creating the process of a bill becoming a law after undergoing many stages between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Finally, Parliament is also required to be representative of the nation, with constituencies creating a strong local link between the electorate and their MP.
They both gained independence from Yugoslavia, following ethnicity disputes. They neighbor one another with roughly the same population. Both states have similar climates and terrains, with the same geographical location. However, they have a stark contrast in the way their political systems function. In relation to freedom in the country Croatia is considered free and scored 87*. While Bosnia and Herzegovina is only partly-free and received a score of 57*. Croatia scored a 1** for political rights, a 2** in civil liberties, and a freedom rating of 1.5**. Bosnia and Herzegovina received a 4** for political rights, a 3** for civil liberties, and a freedom rating of 3.5**. Croatia was ranked 50/168*** and received a score of 51/100*** for corruption perception. Bosnia and Herzegovina ranked 76//168*** and received a score of 38/100*** also for corruption perception. Croatia’s GDP per capita is about $21,635.10 USD, while Bosnia and Herzegovina’s GDP is roughly $10,426.90 USD. These differences illustrate the effects of an effective political system, while comparing two similar
“Otpor! Bringing Down a Dictator” shares many examples of outside manipulation affecting the revolutionary thresholds of individuals living in Serbia. First and foremost, Srdja Popovic explained, “People think that you have to chop off the top of the monolith. That’s revolution. No, we say Otpor wants democracy. Not by chopping off heads. Serbians must depose their leader through elections. This will prove that Serbians are civilized. (York, 2002). Popovic was explaining how to achieve a successful revolution through peaceful protest. In doing so, Otpor could inspire others to join their movement while maintain a level of dignity for Serbia. Over time the efforts of Otpor reached people all throughout Serbia who were willing to participate in protest in order to obtain true democracy for
Accountability is important, because without it, there's no where to place the blame when mistakes occur. In fact, accountability covers more than just blameworthiness; responsibility, answerability, and liability also come into question when discussing the importance of accountability. The very application of the word, describes a system, in which actions, decisions, and policies are all accounted for (or: kept track of, recorded, and assessed and evaluated). Accountability can even extend into the administration of new policies, that are rendered due to obsolete rules and regulations or just out-right compliancy issues; the governance of decisions that define expectations or verify one's performance-- as well as managing and guiding
In this assignment I will be assessing the democratic accountability of the European Union. I will begin by briefly describing the institutions, their functions, compositions and discuss how they work as check and balance system to ensure democratic accountability further to look on to how laws are made and what they are In order to establish whether or not the EU is in fact answerable to its citizens.
Sovereignty Sovereignty refers to ultimate and absolute authority designated to either an individual or an institutional body. The term sovereignty could be contested due to the fact that there is no universally agreed definition. Thomas Hobbes defined what he considered the basis of a political body as 'the most high and perpetual.' (Hobbes, quoted in Heywood, 1997, p26.)
The political leaders of the country blame the defects in the constitution and the ineffectiveness of the government on the influence of international actors. Even more appalling, the obstacle to political entry for citizens of non-Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian origin is one of the few issues that the nationalist officials of the two entities actually do agree upon. The main reason for this is based on the fact that the current political system is financially beneficial for politicians and extremely sensitive to corruption. Where the Bosnian civilians are suffering from underemployment and low wages, the officials make relatively ridiculous high wages.
First, what all is the government responsible for? We can begin to address this question by looking at the United States Constitution.
Parliament - Parliament is pretty much the identical to the legislative branch here in the US. The prime minister is accountable in his actions to the parliament. The parliament consists of the house of lords, house of commons and monarch.
Governments perform three functions namely executive, judicial and legislative functions. The role of separation of powers involves the diffusion rather than concentration of powers within the state. Thus, these branches should be separate, unique and equal. The underlying principle of the separation of powers is that individuals have the potential to harm others, and this can become a reality when power is concentrated in one person, faction, or institution. However, if the branches were completely separate it would be unworkable since Parliament is