Supreme Audit Institutions: A Vanishing Mediator for Democracy?

Abstract

As unique and sui generis organizations Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) are one of the most important key actors of modern democratic-political system. They must not be regarded simply as administrative or regularity-oriented extensions of the public management framework. If we don’t want “the democratic representativeness” to be reduced to “a dead point of an institutionalism”, we have to let “the political” reveal in all its robustness. The sheer “democratic modus vivendi” only goes with this sort of de-constructivist and emancipatory state philosophy. Our claim is that without considering the spirit of “the political”, it is almost impossible to appreciate the sheer role and function of the SAIs in the modern democratic state system. An SAI appears just like a “vanishing mediator” in the political system. It institutionally serves for the figuration of the political and then it functionally vanishes away to give birth to the political. So what makes an SAI vital for the democracy is closely associated with the role of “vanishing mediator”. If an SAI is enabled to take part in the setup of political system without any barrier and if its legislative reporting function is carried out through a deliberative and open agenda, the critical role of the SAIs in remaking process of the political will eventually emerge.