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service providers and campaign groups, and routinised consultations of specialist
groups and umbrella women’s sector organisations. As such the Executive can be
seen as both ‘answerable’ and ‘responsive’ to women’s organisations thereby
enhancing substantive representation and citizenship.
In terms of horizontal accountability, Executive performance is scrutinised by
parliamentarians through regular reporting and various parliamentary mechanisms
including annual parliamentary debates on DA/VAW, latterly scheduled to coincide
with the UN 16 Days of Action. These Executive-sponsored debates provide a regular
routinised opportunity to review progress and to reaffirm the importance of the issue.
The interconnection between vertical and horizontal accountability can be
demonstrated by the ways in which DA/VAW organisations as civil society groups
have worked through MSPs and through the National Group to incorporate their
perspectives and raise implementation problems through parliamentary channels and
committee structures, and through National Group reporting structures and activities.
A further accountability dimension relates to the extent to which mechanisms are
enforceable (hard accountability backed by legal sanctions) or (merely) hold
governments to be responsive (soft accountability). In the case of DA/VAW in
Scotland, the failure to keep promises in relation to a strategy would result in political
consequences (internal and external disapprobation, possible loss of legitimacy,
possible electoral impact) rather than legal consequences or sanctions. However, it
may be the case that the incoming UK Gender Duty could be utilised to trigger a legal
challenge or judicial review of government policy and it is also possible that
authorities failing to deliver their service commitments could be reported to the Public
Services Ombudsman for Scotland.
A provisional assessment of policy developments using the selected criteria is
summarised in the table below.
Table 3: Assessment of developments using provisional framework
Representation
Recognition
DA as a mainstream political issue
through visible political leadership by
female ministers and parliamentarians
‘for some of the women … it’s personal’
Subject of first parliamentary
committee-initiated legislation
Feminist definitions of DA as ‘male
abuse of power’ are adopted by the
state.
Feminists anti-violence organisations
recognised as experts with policy
solutions
High profile input of women’s
organisations:
• Key players in National Group
• Regularly invited to give evidence
to parliamentary committees
• Secondment of feminist policy
worker to Executive
• Close personal connections
Stated Government Priority:
‘Action against domestic abuse is now
a national priority enjoying the same
status as […] health or education
priorities’ (SE, 2003a, 5)
Men thinking differently?
• Male champions eg. male convenor
of Cross-Party Parliamentary Group
on Men’s Violence Against Women
(1999-2003)
Recognition of:
• Links between DA and wider
gender inequality
• Issues of human rights and
citizenship
Convention