Democracy, Responsiveness, and Accountability

3 units

This course focuses on the question: To whom - what interests, whose demands - do elected politicians respond when making policy? In the last 30 years, the number of countries that select their rulers through competitive elections has increased sharply. The performance of many of these regimes, however, raises serious doubts about the extent to which elections guarantee a close correspondence between citizen preferences and policy outputs. The class explores the practical implications of ideals like responsiveness and accountability for elected officials, and how these operate in conjunction with the separation of powers, independent judiciaries, political party discipline, pressure from international actors, as well as more base incentives, like personal ambition and corruption.