Aspirant Academy

Public Administration

Comparative Assessment

Control of Public Administration: Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Control

Paper III · Unit 2 Section 6 of 10 0 PYQs 25 min
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Comparative Assessment

5.1 Three Controls — Strengths and Weaknesses

Type Strengths Weaknesses
Legislative Periodic; political accountability; financial control; democratic legitimacy Partisan; infrequent; committee overload; limited technical capacity
Executive Continuous; immediate; hierarchical; preventive Self-monitoring; political capture; conflicts of interest
Judicial Independent; rights-based; post-facto correction; PIL access Delayed; expensive; technical limitations; execution gap

5.2 Towards Complementary Control

Effective democratic governance requires all three controls:

  • Legislative control sets the framework and holds ministers accountable.
  • Executive control ensures day-to-day compliance with rules and hierarchy.
  • Judicial control provides the ultimate safety net for rights violations and ultra vires actions.

Accountability 360°: No single control is sufficient. The 2nd ARC recommended combining these with civil society accountability (social audit), RTI, and independent institutional watchdogs (CVC, CIC, Lokpal) to create a comprehensive accountability ecosystem.