An unusual story appeared about an incidence for the American navy (InQueensland).
A commander of a US navy destroyer that is helping protect the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East has been relieved of duty about four months after he was seen in a photo firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward.
An ordinary person, unrelated to the event, would have a choice in the reading for the incident as reported:
A. It was an overreaction in the American navy to relieve an officer of a ship’s command simply because a photo of firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward;
B. Standards for Ship Commanders must be held at the highest level. The pose in the photograph was careless. It may have impinged on the good reputation of the American navy, but more significant was that the Commander was careless in the act of firing the rife, under the ‘rules’ (allegedly from the position of the reader).
When it comes to political actions, we have the same choice in making a decision. ‘Politics’ here is not simply a matter of governance or party loyalty (that is just a baseline in the thinking). Politics here is the second definition of the Oxford dictionary (online research result): “activities aimed at improving someone’s status or increasing power within an organisation. “yet another discussion of office politics and personalities”. The argument of this article is straightforward: A Call for Higher Accountability for All Political Activities. Although the message is straightforward, it is a very complex process to get “politicians” to set the higher example.
The point is not only evident to common sense, but is evidenced in the scholarly literature. Rubenstein (2007):
According to the “standard model” of accountability, holding another actor accountable entails sanctioning that actor if it fails to fulfill its obligations without a justification or excuse. Less powerful actors therefore cannot hold more powerful actors accountable, because they cannot sanction more powerful actors. Because inequality appears unlikely to disappear soon, there is a pressing need for “second-best” forms of accountability: forms that are feasible under conditions of inequality, but deliver as many of the benefits of standard accountability as possible. This article describes a model of second-best accountability that fits this description, which I call “surrogate accountability.” I argue that surrogate accountability can provide some of the benefits of standard accountability, but not others, that it should be evaluated according to different normative criteria than standard accountability, and that, while surrogate accountability has some benefits that standard accountability lacks, it is usually normatively inferior to standard accountability. (616)
So, whatever the solution, it is a complex process. There is evidence that partisan governmental agencies do not do as well in the process than ‘independent agencies’ which have paid more attention to the principles of accountability:
… Using original data on 103 independent agencies in the Netherlands, the analysis demonstrates that salience has a twofold effect. First, agencies dealing with more salient issues are made more politically accountable. Second, agencies whose statutes are written when the issue of accountability is more salient are also subject to higher degrees of accountability. Other explanatory factors are the number of veto players and the legal organization. (Koop 2011:209)
It is complex, but nevertheless do-able because the concept of accountability is related to the principles of transparency and good governance (Hale 2008: 73): “Observers often cite transparency as a response to the accountability concerns of global actors, but how disclosure and openness actually affect the behavior of international organizations, transnational corporations, and nation-states remains theoretically and empirically under specified.”
This is what this “A Call for Higher Accountability for All Political Activities” begins to do. The article shows that there is already a process to move forward and politicians have no excuses.
REFERENCES
Flop gun: US Navy ship’s captain pictured firing rifle with scope on backwards, InQueensland, September 4, 2024.
Featured Image: NO EXCUSES road sign against clear blue sky. ID 147114542 © Aleksandar Mijatovic | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch
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