ABSTRACT
This chapter will critically review how the existing accountability mechanisms operate and how impeachment might buttress these mechanisms in achieving greater political accountability of the executive, both in terms of compliance with accepted constitutional norms and the proper exercise of ministerial power. The focus here is how the executive is held to account by mechanisms that are political, rather than legal, in nature, and are concerned with the integrity of the constitution and the proper use of ministerial powers. Chapter 6 will help inform the discussions throughout this book and will provide the basis for the proposal to reform impeachment in Chapter 9. This chapter is divided into two parts. Part one will begin clarifying the key elements of the constitutions in which a modernised process of impeachment would be operating. Part two is concerned with the accountability of the executive and how impeachment could cooperate along the existing political accountability mechanisms.
