Accountability, in terms of ethics and governance, is equated with answerability, blameworthiness, 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 and private (corporate) and individual contexts. In leadership roles,[2] accountability is the acknowledgment and assumption of responsibility for actions, products, decisions, and policies including the administration, governance, and implementation within the scope of the role or employment position and encompassing the obligation to report, explain 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][4] 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" and more.[5] Accountability cannot exist without proper accounting practices; in other words, an absence of accounting means an absence of accountability. Another key area that contributes to accountability is good records management.[6]
"Accountability" stems from late Latin accomptare (to account), a prefixed form of computare (to calculate), which in turn derived from putare (to reckon).[7]While the word itself does not appear in English until its use in 13th century Norman England,[8][9] 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,[10] Israel,[11] Babylon,[12] Greece,[13] and later, Rome.[14]
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.[15] In representative democracies citizens delegate power to elected officials through periodic elections in order to represent or act in their interest.[15] The challenge then becomes why would rulers with such power, who presumably have divergent interests from the people, act in the best interest of the people?[16] Citizens can rely on rewards or sanctions to threaten or reward politicians who might otherwise act in a manner that is antithetical to the people's interest.[16] 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.[16] "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."[16]
Representatives can be held accountable through two mechanisms: electoral replacement and rational anticipation.[17] In electoral replacement citizens vote to replace representatives who are out of step with their interests. Rational anticipation requires that representatives anticipate the consequences of being out of step with their constituency and then govern in accordance with citizens' wishes to avoid negative consequences.[17] Accountability can still be achieved even if citizens are not perfectly knowledgeable about representative's actions as long as representatives believe that they will be held accountable by citizens they will still act in accordance with the citizens' interests.[18]
Electoral accountability refers to citizens using the vote to sanction or reward politicians, but other forms of political accountability do exist.[16]