HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Horizontal and Vertical Accountability are complementary principles in the design of any constitutional democracy. The COVICO Roundtable will focus on horizontal accountability as it arises in the context of relations between the Executive and Legislative organs (functions) of governance, and in the Judicial relationship to both of them. Substantively, it will consider the situation that exists in the United States as well as counterpart dynamics in other democracies.

A paper by Guillermo O'Donnell provides the theoretical framework for the exercise. Please find the text at: HA Note that this is a sequel to his basic essay Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies" in THE SELF-RESTRAINING STATE: POWER AND ACCOUTABILITY IN NEW DEMOCRACIES, edited by Andreas Schedler, Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner (Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 1999), pp. 29-52. Participants should, if possible, read this document before coming to the roundtable. The discussion will presuppose knowledge of these two papers.

A conference on "Institutions, Accountability, and Democratic Governance in Latin America" was held at the Kellog Institute, Notre Dame University, 8-9 May 2000. The essay by O'Donnell mentioned above was presented there, together with other papers that relate to the theme of this roundtable -- they may be read by going to: conference

David G. Becker <David.G.Becker@ibm.net>,

Scott Bowman <sbowman@calstatela.edu>

Scott Morgenstern <smorgens@acpub.duke.edu>,

Guillermo A. O'donnell <guillermo.a.odonnell.1@nd.edu>,

Fred Riggs <fredr@hawaii.edu>

David Samuels <dsamuels@polisci.umn.edu>,

Matthew Shugart <mshugart@ucsd.edu>,

Richard Sklar <sklar@polisci.ucla.edu>,

Majid Tehranian <majid@hawaii.edu>,

R. Kent Weaver <kweaver@brook.edu>

Michael Coppedge <Michael.J.Coppedge.1@nd.edu>,

Larry Diamond <diamond@hoover.stanford.edu>

Timothy Frye <frye@polisci.sbs.ohio-state.edu>

Charles D. Kenney <ckenney@ou.edu>,

Scott Mainwaring <scott.p.mainwaring.1@nd.edu>,

Burt L. Monroe <bmonroe@indiana.edu>,

Anibal Perez-Linan <Anibal.S.Perezlinan.1@nd.edu>

Marc F. Plattner <forum@ned.org>,

Joy Moncrieffe <jmoncrieffe@yahoo.com>,

Amarak Raksasataya <amarak@nida.nida.ac.th>,

Andrew Reynolds <areynold@weber.ucsd.edu>,

Andreas Schedler <andreas@flacso.flacso.edu.mx>,

Philippe Schmitter <schmitte@datacomm.iue.it>,

A session of Division 34, for Representation & Electoral Systems, organized by Burt Munroe, will consider the complementary principle of vertical accountability, in the context of the future of Political Science. This session and the COVICO roundtable will be co-sponsored, and there will be enough overlap of participants to support recognition of the complementarity of the horizontal and vertical principles of accountability. A separate panel on horizontal accountability has also been proposed by Charles D. Kenney. Both horizontal and vertical accountabiity are needed to assure the responsiveness of elected office-holders to their constituents, and to maintain mutual interaction and responsibility in relations between the separate branches or institutions of government.

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Updated: 19 April 2000