Accountability Of Our Government Essay Example For Students

Accountability Of Our Government Essay Accountability Of Our Government Essay Accountability is the essence of our democratic form of government. It is the liability assumed by all those who exercise authority to account for the manner in which they have fulfilled responsibilities entrusted to them, a liability ultimately to the Canadian people owed by Parliament, by the government and thus, every government department and agency. One of the fundamental principals of a democratic society is the government must be accountable to the people. Such accountability in Canada is exercised through Parliament. Every Minister is ultimately accountable for their portfolio to Parliament and therefore in turn responsible to the Canadian electorate. The realization of this responsibility is undertaken upon the assumption of office. Accountability within government is a measure that is used to control the abuse of power by those elected as government representatives. The government must be able to control and protect its own membership to be able meaningfully to accept responsibility for its direction and impact as a government. Without accountability we are left with a powerful political structure that has the ability to act without conscience or redress and this does not represent a modern democracy. With any discussion which focuses on responsibility within parliament, one can see the varying levels of accountability and the difficulties which arise when attempting to describe power, within the Canadian political system. Accountability in the public service can be studied from two different perspectives. The civil servant who represents the bureaucratic sector and the minister indicating the political sphere. The issue of accountability raises several key questions and queries for social scientists. Is the power of the civil servant increasing while ministerial responsibility is decreasing? What effects if any does this have on the bureaucratic system? How does Parliament excise legislative control over the bureaucracy? In essence, who is accountable to the Canadian people? Ministerial Responsibility Ministers in Canada are elected senior members of parliament who are appointed to a departmental portfolio by the Prime Minister. These offices are the constitutional head of all public agencies, ranging from Department of National Defense to Department of Human Resources. Each portfolio has a deputy minister and a team of senior civil servants who advise the minister on a variety of issues ranging from administrative procedures to policy implication. Because a minister is usually not specialized in his portfolio he usually has to rely heavily on information acquired from his senior officials. Therefore Ministerial responsibility is closely tied to bureaucrats. It may prove beneficial, at this time, to outline general procedures for policy making and implementation. Cabinet is the form in which new governmental polices are developed. These policies are then conveyed to individual departments through the ministers. The implementation and feedback of these policies is then the responsibility of civil servants. There are two main types of ministerial responsibility: Collective and individual. Collective responsibilities refers to the accountability of Government to Parliament. The collective cabinet responsibility ensures the solidarity of Government. Ministers must be supportive of all cabinet policies while at the same time quell criticisms of individual departments. With collective responsibility a minister must be supportive of all cabinet policies regardless of individual concerns especially in public. The government can therefore present policies to Parliament with one collective voice. This solidarity enables government to defend individual minister in the House of Commons and protect its right to govern. The governments collective responsibility is to have the confidence of Parliament at all times. If at any time this confidence is questioned the governing party must be subjected to a vote in Parliament. Failure to win the vote requires the government to either resign or dissolve Parliament. Collective responsibility enables the government to rise, put forth policy and resign as one collective unit. Three related rules form the doctrine of collective responsibility: that government should stand or fall as one ;administration; (and not re-make itself out of the same assembly and try to win a vote of confidence); that the administration speaks formally to Parliament with one voice, and that ministers collectively resign or the government asks for dissolution if defeated in the Commons on matters of confidence. This is one measure in which Government can be held accountable to the people. Judy L. Graves EssayDifficulties will arise in trying to convince back benchers to essentially vote themselves into the unemployment line, however if the government fails to pass a substantial bill nowadays that is consider a vote of non-confidence.Opposition parties also use this accountability measure to heighten public awareness of questionable government practices or policies. Individual ministerial responsibility can be divided into two sub- components.First a minister must answer to Parliament for any wrong doings that is done by their department while at the same time defend the actions of their department.These two elements combined ensure that Ministers are ultimately held .