ABSTRACT
Executive The apex of power in a political system, at which policy is formed and through which it is executed, for example the President in the USA or the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Britain.Legislature
The body within a political system that makes the laws. This is likely to be the national assembly, for example Parliament in the UK or Congress in the USA.Judiciary The body charged with enforcing laws
and, in some states, upholding the constitutional rules. In considering these elements of the political system we are really asking a related set of questions which can usefully be outlined at the start of this chapter and which will act as a guide to understanding the comments that follow. In some ways this chapter asks the following questions: how are people governed? What formal machinery exists to govern? Who governs? What power do those who govern or the institutions that govern possess? How is this power related to the people and from where does the authority to govern derive? Some of these questions were asked by Ghandi and Macaulay. For Ghandi the aim was to construct a parliament through which the voice of the people could be heard. For Macaulay, the concern was to ensure accountability and responsibility within an institutional framework. These are key issues for this chapter. The struggle for responsible and accountable government has a long and often violent history throughout the world and remains for those countries engaged in processes of democratisation (the former communist states in Europe, for instance) a key question. Even in the established democracies of the West, the quest to ensure delivery of these criteria still occupies a good many politicians and scholars of politics.
