Accountability Of Our Government Essay Research Paper

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Accountability Of Our Government Essay, Research Paper Accountability of Our Government 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 government’s collective