"Political Responsibility" and Authoritarianism

Taiwan News has a great commentary on political responsibility in a democracy, on a theme that other media outlets have also commented on in much the same way over the years.

Under former imperial systems or autocrats for life, such as the Chinese Nationalist Party dictator Chiang Kai-shek and his son Ching-kuo, ministers in related agencies would "take responsibility" and resign to appease public outcry and anger over major bureaucratic errors or even accidents under the principle of "good men" government.

The "disgraced" official would usually be reassigned to other positions in the KMT hierarchy and another politician would be tabbed as the "new" and "good" minister, who would end up by doing no more toward reform of the underlying problems than his or her predecessor.

[Taiwan]