Responsibility, Checks & Balances

Article Two of the United States constitution (balanced with articles one and three) lays out the powers and responsibilities of the President and the checks against that power. But despite these guidelines, those powers have been disputed and interpreted differently over time (Burns, 1963).

In Britain, the matter of oversight of the head of state's power became an exchange. The royal family would submit the revenue from the crown lands to the Treasury. In exchange they would receive a fixed sum to cover expenses in the form of the civil list. This tied the head of state's power to its dependence upon Parliament for money.

In Canada, the gaining of budgeting powers and responsible government were defining aspects of the country's foundations.

"...the keen fight has always been that of the right of the assembly to levy taxes and distribute it alone."      - Louis Joseph Papineau, 1867.

The civil list, in much the same vein, was a means of reining in the power of unelected bodies by ensuring that all matters of money came through the people's elected representatives - including a clear presentation of the funds to be spent - allowing the elected members to scrutinize and approve how the people's money is spent.

The latest efforts to reform this method of funding Britain's head of state, proposed by the Tory dominated government, became an act of parliament in the past month (BBC, 2011). It unites the sovereign's funds into a single grant, rather than several from different government department budgets. Yet the reform does little to ensure upfront disclosure of the way public money is spent, making it hard to see how cutting a cheque for a set amount (to be 15% of Crown Estate profits, in 2013 approx. £34m), represents much in the way of reform at all.

There are important reasons why this constitutional body must clear all of its spending with the taxpayer's delegates - explaining who is being employed, for what and for how much - before money is handed over not in the auditing process afterwards.

How to find a form of association which will defend the person and goods of each member with the collective force of all, and under which each individual, while uniting himself with the others, obeys no one but himself, and remains as free as before.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1762.

If Rousseau's proposition is going to be the case, then those allowed to wield exceptional power - particularly the spectacular privileges royalty enjoy - must have definite checks against that power and transparency in the dealings that power enables; whether that power is invested in one body, like the US President, or a few like the US Congress.

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References:
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+ James MacGregor Burns' 'The Deadlock of Democracy: Four-Party Politics in America'; Prentice, 1963.

For more on the United States' founding documents:
Pauline Maier's 'The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States'; Bantam, 1999.

+ BBC's 'Royal funding changes become law'; 18 October 2011.

For more on the Sovereign Grant Act, that replaces the civil list:
HM Treasury's 'Sovereign Grant Act', under Consultations & legislation.

+ 'Speech of the Hon. Louis-Joseph Papineau before the Institut canadien on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of this society'; 17 December 1867.

+ Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'The Social Contract'; 1762.

*Correction: 15% elaborated to 15% of Crown Estate profits.