Accountability

(accountable)

Accusations of a failure of accountability are regularly made against Australian governments and the political process more generally. At its core, accountability is a type of power relationship in which some actors can require other actors to provide information explaining and justifying their actions. Accountability may also entail sanctions and rectification if the actions are not explained adequately. The fact that one actor has the right to demand an account from another is enough in itself to define their relationship as one of formal accountability. In practice, however, deciding whether accountability is real or not requires judgements about the comprehensiveness of the information provided by the formally accountable actors and the strength of the sanctions and rectifying measures imposed on them when their actions are not adequately justified.

In democracies, the key questions about accountability have centred on how elected representatives and non-elected public officials can be kept accountable to citizens for their actions. The long-standing answer to these questions in Westminster-style systems such as Australia has involved a chain of accountability in which junior public servants within the bureaucratic hierarchy are accountable to more senior public servants, those senior public servants are accountable to government ministers, who are in turn accountable to parliament, whose members are accountable to citizens.

Accountability has close links with the ideas of responsibility and responsible government. Although some academics distinguish between accountability and responsibility, the two terms are often used interchangeably in Australian political debate.