6.8.5   Ensuring that Politicians Behave Responsibly

(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book.  Current versions are at book contents).

As described in the following sub-sections, politicians would be more likely to perform ‘well’ if they knew that their actions were transparent (6.8.5.1) and that they could be held to account for unsatisfactory performance (6.8.5.2).  In practice, though, it is difficult to determine what is meant by performing ‘well’ – since people vary in what they expect from politicians and it is hard to measure satisfaction (6.8.5.3).  It is also difficult to assign responsibility or blame to individual politicians or political parties, because some factors are beyond their control (6.8.5.4).