In a popular democracy, citizens, collectively, are the ultimate principal; elected representatives are their agents. These agents are also principals who, through the legislature, delegate authority to a host of departments and agencies that make up the sprawling executive branch of government – Fraser Institute
It has become obvious to many several built in checks and balances of the Westminster system of government Barbados has adopted from its colonial past are failing. It is a system of governance which requires exhaustive participation by citizens to work effectively. Nearly 40% of eligible voters did not vote in the last general election, an obvious symptom of a democracy in decay if we sample just one indicator.
Auditor General reports (2004 to 2013) of successive governments record a consistent performance of fiscal indiscipline. A flouting of the financial rules. An easy translation of the Auditor General’s comments can be described as a system of graft and corruption. A scary observation is that the private sector is the entity which sells goods and services to government therefore citizens who should be holding ‘government’ accountable are complicit. In the case of Barbados we may not compare with Nigeria and other more openly corrupt countries but there is a view the covert nature of how we do business places us in the ballpark.
What the Fraser Institute publication concedes is that the “Westminster model is not designed to provide for the accountability of individual elected representatives to individual voters”. To expand: in order to adequately evaluate the performance of government – comprised of several organs – is too complex and costly. The publication makes the obvious point a democracy must delegate authority to function, it logically follows that a robust system of accountability must be adhered to mindful of the maxim “absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.” If Barbadians continue to allow themselves to become polarized by partisan political positions the obvious will eventually occur; a compromising of our democracy.
A recent example of how our so called Westminster style of government has failed is the public condemnation of the Cabinet of Barbados by a senior minister that has gone unpunished (to date) by the Prime Minister. Ministers are expected to honour the convention of collective responsibility because all ministers are collectively responsible for government operations.
What is interesting about the Westminster system according to Fraser is the culture of secrecy which it encourages – the shielding of information from citizens. It seems an oxymoron to discuss Westminster style democracy and the secrecy it promotes.
One approach to wrestle back control from the establishment is to impose term limits on those who serve. The problem is that the the incumbents see no motivation to change the status quo. Only in Opposition when spouting propaganda (lies) are the views of politicians aligned with concerned citizens. Mia Mottley tried to change the constitution of the Barbados Labour Party when she was on the outside; a periphery point to establish sincerity. Since assuming the leadership of the party has she restarted the conversation with the party? Why should we allow a cadre of politician to view being member of parliament as a job rather than performing a stint of public service?
The time has come for a national discussion about the need to hold our government accountable. The Auditor General, The Public Accounts Committee …
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.