Paper I, Unit 5: Accountability and Control
Accountability is a relationship: an actor must explain and justify conduct to a forum able to question it and attach consequences.
Accountability is a relationship: an actor must explain and justify conduct to a forum able to question it and attach consequences. Control includes the mechanisms that influence or constrain conduct before, during and after action.
Official wording of this unit: see the Paper I syllabus (unit 5).
Syllabus phrases and how to read them
| Syllabus phrase | Meaning and preparation focus |
|---|---|
| Concepts | Distinguish responsibility, answerability, accountability, transparency and responsiveness. Disclosure helps scrutiny but does not itself guarantee correction or sanction. |
| Legislative control | Study questions, debate, committees, budget authorisation and expenditure scrutiny. Examine information asymmetry, party incentives, time and follow-up. |
| Executive control | Analyse supervision, rules, inspection, internal audit, appraisal and disciplinary systems. Excessive prior permission can weaken initiative and blur who owns results. |
| Judicial control | Understand legality, jurisdiction, procedure, reasoned action and rights protection. Distinguish correcting unlawful action from routinely substituting judicial preferences for administrative expertise. |
| Citizen, media, groups, civil society | Identify how voice, investigation, mobilisation and participation change incentives. Also examine exclusion, unrepresentative intermediaries, misinformation and capture. |
| Charters; RTI; social audit | Compare service commitments, access to official information and collective verification of implementation. Each requires records, accessibility, an independent forum and credible follow-up. |
Accountability can fail through both scarcity and overload. With too few forums, discretion becomes opaque; with numerous conflicting forums, officials may optimise defensive paperwork. Ask who should answer for which decision, on what evidence and with what consequence.
Paper II: parliamentary finance, corruption and citizen interface. Example: a public grievance is marked disposed, but the underlying service remains denied. Process completion is an output; remedial action and citizen experience reveal whether accountability worked.
Does greater transparency necessarily create greater accountability? Develop a conditional answer.
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