Importance Of Political Accountability

As long as the American government has been democratic, there have always been corruption or loopholes with officials and the governed body. Those have created political consequences and an impact on the mistrust of the citizens of the United States’ representatives, which are the politicians. This has created political accountability that is how elected officials are held in charge of their own actions and repercussions of their actions. In order for America’s Democratic government have the ability to work lucratively, it is important that there is political accountability by government officials. This is the only way the government will be able to serve our country and act accordingly for our best interests. Political accountability has significantly

Being the head of the Executive Branch, the president is still accountable for actions that he has taken, or from Congress’ doings in legislation. But most importantly, approval is an important mechanism within the Executive Branch from the Legislative. The President is able to appoint people for positions from ambassadors to Supreme Court Justices. But being able to appoint someone to a position does not mean that they totally get the position. To check the President’s accountability, Congress has to approve the president’s nomination, which they usually do. Yet, that does not limit Congress from disapproving of a nomination. In 2014, Debo Adegbile was President Obama’s nominee to head the Civil Rights Division in the Justice Department. He was well qualified and fit for the position, but once Congress rechecked Adegbile’s history it was shown that he should have originally been rejected because of his past work as a criminal defense attorney. This could have been something that was simply overlooked by the President, or he knew but did not care and did not think Congress would catch it and could have in fact hurt his Presidency if his nominee was approved; luckily Congress (Legislative Branch) was able to recheck his decision (Bianco and Canon 2015, 442). Accountability with the President and his rights to veto laws are known to have policy

A reform that I would recommend to improve liability of the Executive Branch is to negate some reform from the Legislative Branch and give some of that power to the Judicial Branch to be able to check the President and/or the rest of the Executive Branch. As the overall overseer and the grand interpreter of the Constitution, I feel like it is the Federal Court’s right to be able to hold the Commander-in-Chief responsible for what he vetoes, who he appoints, and all of his other powers. Congress who needs to be checked every so often should not be able to reverse or resolve certain things to happen if they disagree with the President’s decision. That is like Congress being able to declare war although the President is opposed to it. To make matters worst for the President, and it can be detrimental to his entire Presidency if Congress is not the majority of his/her party. That is what happened in Former President Clinton and Bush’s case as legislation was attempting to be passed but could not because of the party difference. Another reform I would recommend to improve accountability is the Judicial Branch not really having reforms or anything major that check their accountability. Most justices nowadays are somewhat centered in their decision-making.