Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, culpability, liability, and the expectation of account-giving.[1]
As in an aspect of governance, it has been central to discussions related to problems in the public sector, nonprofit, private (corporate), and individual contexts. In leadership roles,[2] accountability is the acknowledgment of and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies such as administration, governance, and implementation, including the obligation to report, justify, and be answerable for resulting consequences.
In governance, accountability has expanded beyond the basic definition of "being called to account for one's actions".[3] It is frequently described as an account-giving relationship between individuals, e.g. "A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A's (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct."[4]
Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in other words, an absence of accounting means an absence of accountability.[citation needed] Another key area that contributes to accountability is good records management.[5]
"Accountability" derives from the late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn is derived from putare (to reckon).[6] While the word itself does not appear in English until its use in 13th century Norman England,[7] the concept of account-giving has ancient roots in record-keeping activities related to governance and money-lending systems that first developed in Ancient Egypt,[8] Israel,[9] Babylon,[10] Greece,[11] and later Rome.[12]
Political accountability is when a politician makes choices on behalf of the people, and the people have the ability to reward or sanction the politician.[13] In representative democracies, citizens delegate power to elected officials through periodic elections, and such officials are empowered to represent or act in the citizens' interest.[13] A challenge is how to see to it that those with such power, who presumably have divergent interests from the citizens, nonetheless act in their best interests.[14] Citizens can rely on rewards or sanctions to reward or threaten politicians who might otherwise act in a manner that is antithetical to the people's interest.[14] Accountability occurs when citizens only vote to re-elect representatives who act in their interests, and if representatives then select policies that will help them be re-elected.[14] "Governments are 'accountable' if voters can discern whether governments are acting in their interest and sanction them appropriately, so that those incumbents who act in the best interest of the citizens win reelection and those who do not lose them."[14]