A Control System for the Enforcement of Adminstrative Responsibility : a Separate Monitoring Agency

Abstract

In a society, there is a matrix of control mechanisms which purport to control bureaucratic establishments. This matrix of control mechanisms as a whole constitutes a master control system over bureaucracy. This master system is named here as a "control system for the enforcement of administrative responsibility." On occasion, this system is referred to as an overall control system or a total control system. This master control system is composed of subsystems or control centers with limited control functions. Control activities of these control centers operate in two major directions. "One phase is designed to ensure that power is used for purposes duly authorized and supported by the consent of the governed. The other phase is designed to protect the constitutional and legal rights of persons against the abuse or unauthorized use of power in specific cases." These two phases of control are shared by various control centers. Subsystems of the master control system can be classified into two main groups: external control systems and internal control systems. External control systems include such control centers as the judiciary, the legislature, and the public. These control centers engage in varying control activities in diverse ways. This diversity defies any neat definition of a single control process applicable to all kinds of control. However, we may still discern a basic underlying control cycle which is, more or less, commonly found in all sorts of control. A brief examination of this basic control cycle and the features of control substructures of the overall control system is attempted in the first two sections of this article prior to the description on the separate monitoring agency. The overall control system is the suprasystem or an environment of the separate monitoring agency. The examination of this suprasystem is indispensable for the wholesome understanding of the separate monitoring agency.