Collective Responsibility

“Collective responsibility” has been an essential principle of the parliamentary government of India. Collective responsibility means that the ministers of the council can make decisions for their own department. It also means that they are held responsible to the parliament in any case of consequences. Therefore, collective guilt that has also been known as “Collective responsibility” can be differentiated with fundamental definition and clear estimation. 

What is a Collective responsibility?

The definition of “Collective responsibility” can be provided with the perception or idea that involves individuals of a group to act responsibly in order to fix the damage or harm that has been caused by other individuals in the society or in the group.  To the contrary, collective guilt has been identified with the conception of individual behaviour that signifies the guilt within them for the harm or damage brought by the other individuals in the group or society. 

In this context, “Collective responsibility” contributes to the fundamental judgments of responsibility that are correlated with certain other aspects of responsibilities of Councils.  “Responsibility of councils” is more or less associated with perceived entitativity, inference of commission, percept authority and inference of omission. 

Principles of “Collective Responsibility”

The principle of collective responsibility is considered the cornerstone of parliamentary form of the government. In this aspect that two basic components to the collective responsibility 

• The first one is the notion that ministers are able to conduct honest and open conversation before reaching to the final consensus and thereby the deliberation can be kept private 
• The second one is related to the position of cabinet that can be agreed upon by all the ministers that are required to follow as well as the vote with the government for the position.

“Responsibility of Individual and collective responsibility”

The responsibility is provided with the convention where the individuals associated with the government or the organisation can be held accountable for the decisions or actions taken by that government or organisation as a whole. Therefore, “Collective responsibility” is increased by the responsibilities of individuals in the group to measure their actions and to project that accordingly.  It has been precisely constituted in constitution and convention that “individual and collective responsibility” is to measure the authority and duty for the actions of other people in the group by ignoring and tolerating them even in case the individuals are not actively collaborating in the actions. “Collective responsibility”, followed by the “individual and collective responsibility” has-been addressed in the constitutional convention that has been considered as the cornerstone of cabinet government ever since the 18th century. 

Benefits of “Collective Responsibilities”

• The collective responsibility avoids the contradictions between the Council of Ministers and cabinet. 
• It provide benefits to the political loyalty and the party of the Prime Minister 
• The collective responsibility helps to make the policy decision as well as the passing legislation. 
• The collective responsibility is a consensus building machine among Ministers

Drawbacks of “Collective Responsibilities”

• The collective responsibility curbs the inner part of democracy where the cabinet ministers have to openly agree with the decision of the prime minister. 
• The initiatives of the individual ministers are curved giving away to the initiative of the party. 
• On the other hand any urgent attention can be delayed due to the issues of collective responsibility which is the biggest drawback of collective responsibility.

Conclusion

The following discussion has been addressed by signifying the contribution of “Collective responsibility”. In order to do so, “Collective responsibility” has been defined with its specific aspects in terms of the responsibility of individuals and that of the Council. In this context, “individual and collective responsibility” has emerged with the role of individuals in order to act and conduct an entire organisation in terms of defining and objectifying the actions and activities imposed by the members of the organisation. In addition to that, the “Responsibility of councils” has been signified as well with their responsibilities in terms of the judgement and decision interpreting the further accommodation of Lok Sabha.