Holding governments accountable to the people is crucial to the functioning of a democracy. It requires a public that is active (meaning that it seeks to influence politics to ensure its wellbeing), enlightened (meaning that individuals are able to think for themselves without outer guidanve) and virtuous (meaning that benevolence among the citisens dominates instead of fear and that the public is thus enabled to unitedly in solidarity seek for the common good instead of working against each other because of fear). If these criteria are given, the public will hold their government accountable to their actions regardless of the political system as an active enlightened public in an oppressive system would trigger a revolution if the the state is not governed in the best interest of the people which will then result in the creation of a political system that will simplify the accountability of the government to the people by creating democratic institutions e.g. regular election of representatives, division of power, checks and balances, plebiscites, public assemblies, double or multi occupation of relevant public offices or prohibition of personal unions in regard to public offices. It must be noted that not all these institutions exist in all modern democracies and on all levels and that they are in fact secundary since an active, virtuous and enlightened public will hold their government accountable to its actions in any case while regarding a public that does not fulfill these criteria, the existance of democratic institutions will not enable it to political participation.
Thus, in order to ensure governments are accountable to the people it is nessesary to enlighten the public and to support public virtue which lies at the core of everything that follows.
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