The concept of accountability

Carolyn Moser

Chapter 1 in Research Handbook on Accountability for Human Rights Violations, 2025, pp 2-16 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Accountability serves as a central concept in modern scholarship. Its usage spans various disciplines, often carrying diverse interpretations and nuances for different audiences. At its core, accountability is about ensuring that those in power are held responsible for their actions and omissions. This contribution aims to unpack the conceptual essence of accountability in the public sphere through a five-part framework. First, by tracing its semantic origins and conceptual trajectory, we explore how accountability evolved from a top-down control mechanism, in which subjects were called upon to render accounts to the sovereign, to a bottom-up construct tied to exercising power in democratic systems. Additionally, we examine how accountability has gained prominence in governance frameworks beyond the nation-state paradigm, which include transnational networks and non-state actors. Second, acknowledging the multidimensional nature of accountability, we present the ‘5 W’ framework, encompassing the key questions of who, to whom, for what, why, and in what way. Third, we delve into different types of accountability, in particular political, legal, and administrative, while alluding to alternative categorizations. Fourth, we explore various approaches to the study of accountability, which depend on one's understanding of the concept's form and function. We learn about accountability as a virtue and accountability as a mechanism, and discover different perspectives on accountability ranging from a democratic focus on controlling delegation to a constitutional focus on countervailing powers ensured notably by judicial and parliamentary actors. Finally, we develop some thoughts on the realities of accountability, in particular in relation to human rights. By providing a comprehensive analysis of accountability, this contribution offers a profound understanding of the complexities and implications of holding state but also non-state entities accountable for their exercise of public power, including for human rights violations.

Keywords: Accountability; Human rights; Public power; Democratic governance; Multidimensional concept (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035306923
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035306930.00009 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22074_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().