Paradox of Institutional Responsibility

Sumit Kumar

European Journal of Law and Political Science, 2026, vol. 5, issue 2, 14-22

Abstract: Of all the ideas that came to the fore during the time of enlightenment in Europe, none has had a more telling impact on the lives of the people across the globe as much as Democracy. Even in the regions where oppressive dictatorial regimes or despotic kingdoms exist, the ideals of democracy still have a large impact on the power struggles and exercise of authority within the state infrastructure. However, these ideals of democracy are not perfect in themselves and are riddled with paradoxes which cannot be resolved without breaching these democratic ideals themselves. In his attempt to resolve the paradox of politics Rousseau created the fiction of a lawgiver which as pointed out above was a breach of the ideas on which democracy is established. The paradox of democratic legitimacy remains another such paradox which cannot be resolved without replacing democracy with populism or constitutionalism. Institutions like the legislature, judiciary, executive, police, military, media, civil society and the like, collectively define a state. At the very same time, these institutions that constitute the state are also embedded in the society. These paradoxes of democracy that get realized into the public institutions pass on through to our society and have considerable politico-legal impact on our society. Democratic society reacts to these paradoxical situations in different ways, either giving rise to populist totalitarianism like fascism or scientific totalitarianism like socialism/communism. This paper deals with the critical analysis of the various democratic paradoxes how they filter down to our society, and how they are institutionally realized creating the paradox of Institutional Responsibility.

Keywords: Bureaucratic accountability; democratic paradoxes; democratic responsibility; rule of law (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epw:politi:v:5:y:2026:i:2:id:8173

DOI: 10.24018/ejpolitics.2026.5.2.8173

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