Parliamentary Committees and Government Accountability—Role of Departmentally-related Committee (original) (raw)

Giving a brief conceptual framework on governmental accountability through parliamentary committee system under the Westminster model of democracy (the.framework extends to most of Third World democracies), the author explores the relationship between the two. Impartingfocus on departmentally-related parliamentary committees (DPCs), which shadow activities of respective government departments, he identifies the factors behind their popularity, specifies measures to promote governmental accountabz1ity through them, and examines their comparative advantages over individual devices of enforcing accountability of government (without discarding the importance and usefulness of these devices). He then, finally, looks at the structural and behavioural aspects of operationalising efficacy of the tool of DPCs.