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Accountability is one of the cornerstones of good governance. Establishing accountable institutions is a top priority on the international development agenda. Yet, scholars and democracy practitioners know little about how accountability mechanisms develop and thus can be supported by international and national actors. The present study tackles the questions of how, and in what order accountability mechanisms develop. We consider not only vertical and horizontal, but also diagonal accountability mechanisms (active civil society organizations and independent media) in both their de-jure and the de-facto dimensions. By utilizing novel sequencing methods, we study their sequential relationships in 173 countries from 1900 to the present with data from the new V-Dem dataset. Considering the long-term dimensions of institution building, this study indicates that most aspects of de-facto vertical accountability precede other forms of accountability. Effective institutions of horizontal accountability "such as vigorous parliaments and independent high courts" evolve rather late in the sequence and build on progress in many other areas.

Accountability --- Finance --- Governance --- Law and Development --- Law and Justice Institutions --- Law Enforcement Systems --- National Governance --- Social Accountability --- Social Development

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In late 2013, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) requested that the World Bank and UNSOM jointly conduct a public expenditure review of the security and justice sectors (SJPER). An SJPER is a tool to assist policy and operational decision-making, analyze tradeoffs, and provide options on critical financially-related issues in defense, as well as criminal justice and policing. Three years later, Somalia is undergoing yet another political transition with the election of a new parliament and ultimately a new president. These steps will augur in a new government in 2017 that will be charged with finalizing some of the key issues around the constitution, including the relationship between the federal state and its federal members, as well as leading the country to democratic elections in 2020. Security and justice issues are hinged to many of these overarching political questions; these are two fundamental 'public goods' that are central to the (re)building of the Somali state and the transition from war to peace. In this context, the SJPER is a technical tool to assist the FGS, the federal members, and their international partners in placing these critical security and justice policy questions within a public finance perspective. As a tool, rather than a one-off report, it should be used by the authorities and partners going forward in terms of testing the critical policy questions against the key dimensions studied here, including affordability, efficiency and effectiveness and accountability.

Accountability --- Conflict --- Conflict and Development --- Corruption & anticorruption Law --- Crime --- Judiciary --- Law and Development --- Law and Justice Institutions --- Law Enforcement --- Law Enforcement Systems --- Legal Framework --- Piracy --- Public Expenditure, Financial Management and Procurement --- Public Sector Governance --- Violence