Accountability

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Accountability is a concept in ethics with several meanings. It is often used synonymously with such concepts as answerability, responsibility, blameworthiness, liability and other terms associated with the expectation of account-giving. As an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in both the public and private (corporation) worlds.

At its root, accountability involves either the expectation or assumption of account-giving behavior. The study of account giving as a sociological act was first explicitly articulated in a 1968 article on "Accounts" by Marvin Scott and Stanford Lyman, ^[1] although it can be traced as well to J.L. Austin's 1956 essay "A Plea for Excuses," ^[2] in which he used excuse-making as an example of speech acts.

Communications scholars have extended this work through the examination of strategic uses of excuses, justifications, rationalizations, apologies and other forms of account giving behavior by individuals and corporations, and Philip Tetlock and his colleagues have applied experimental design techniques to explore how individuals behave under various scenarios and situations that demand accountability.

In Britain, accountability has been formally identified by Government since 1995 as one of the Seven Principles of Public Life^[3]: "Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office." The goal of accountability is at times in tension with the goal of leadership. A constituency may have short-term desires which are at odds with long-term interests. It has also been argued that accountability provides in certain situations an escape route for ministers to avoid the consequences of ministerial responsibility, which would require resignation.^[4]

In other states, in particular outside the Anglo-American world, the concept of accountability is less familiar. Recently, accountability has become an important topos in the discussion about the legitimacy of international institutions.^[5]

In another view, accountability is a simple word that, at its root, means: "the willingness to stand up and be counted -- as part of a process, activity or game." In this sense, then, accountability is less something I'm held to, or something done to me; rather, it is a word reflecting personal choice and willingness to contribute to an expressed or implied outcome.

[edit] See also

• Audit
• Blame
• Clinical governance
• Competence
• Consumer protection
• Criminal responsibility
• Duty to warn
• Management
• Professional liability
• Professional standards
• Quality control
• Quality of care

[edit] References & Bibliography

1. ↑ Scott MB, Lyman SM. Accounts. Am Sociol Rev. 1968 Feb;33(1):46-62.
2. ↑ Austin, J.L. 1956-7. A plea for excuses. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. Reprinted in J.O. Urmson & G.J. Warnock, eds., 1979, J.L. Austin: Philosophical Papers, 3rd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 175-204.
3. ↑ Standards in Public Life: First Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (1995) Cm2850 page 14 text accessed at [1] June 12, 2006
4. ↑ Public service Committee, Second report, Ministerial Accountability and Responsibility, Session 1995-6, HC 313.
5. ↑ R.W. Grant and R.O. Keohane, Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics, 99 American Political Science Review (2005) 29-43.

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