Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

This paper is a mapping exercise by Peter Burnell. The intention is to offer a theoretical framework for analysing the relationships between accountability in the idea of democratically accountable governance and constitutional implementation, with specific reference to developing democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. The intention is that detailed empirical investigation of the component features and of issues in the relationship between them may be guided by this framework, where judged appropriate, although that investigation is not attempted here. The endeavour should be construed as exploratory much more than as a data-driven exercise. As well as putting forward a number of propositions that merit discussion in their own right, the analysis here also raises many additional questions that could be worthy of more intensive theoretical as well as empirical investigation. It does not pretend to offer definitive answers.