Democratic accountability mechanisms in international comparison

The quality of these mechanisms is important for sustainable governance, as the stability and effectiveness of a political system depends on the rule of law, as well as on citizen control and participation. Fully developed opportunities for political participation are key to equitable participation.

The SGI project uses a set of criteria based on the most critical dimensions of accountability identified in the theoretical discourse on democracy. These include democratic accountability in citizen oversight of the executive (vertical accountability), the role of civil society (diagonal accountability) and the oversight of other state institutions (horizontal accountability). A total of twenty qualitative indicators are used to evaluate eight criteria.

All data, rankings and country reports can be accessed free of charge via the project’s interactive website (http://www.sgi-network.org).