From de-jure to de-facto

Abstract

Accountability is one of the
 cornerstones of good governance. Establishing accountable
 institutions is a top priority on the international
 development agenda. Yet, scholars and democracy
 practitioners know little about how accountability
 mechanisms develop and thus can be supported by
 international and national actors. The present study tackles
 the questions of how, and in what order accountability
 mechanisms develop. We consider not only vertical and
 horizontal, but also diagonal accountability mechanisms
 (active civil society organizations and independent media)
 in both their de-jure and the de-facto dimensions. By
 utilizing novel sequencing methods, we study their
 sequential relationships in 173 countries from 1900 to the
 present with data from the new V-Dem dataset. Considering
 the long-term dimensions of institution building, this study
 indicates that most aspects of de-facto vertical
 accountability precede other forms of accountability.
 Effective institutions of horizontal accountability – such
 as vigorous parliaments and independent high courts – evolve
 rather late in the sequence and build on progress in many
 other areas.