This study examines the concept of accountability from technical and relational perspectives. It argues that the principles of justice and equality are key for cultivating more equitable relations of accountability, which are critical for human development and necessary for the stability of democracies. Accountability will remain abstract and non-transformative until the implications of its relational dimension are understood. It is important to recognise the ingrained perceptions that skew accountability in unproductive ways.
Technical approaches to building accountability focus on institutions, mechanisms and redistributing resources in order to improve capabilities. Relational approaches recognise the value of such initiatives, but question whether and how institutions and mechanisms are just, whether there is justice in decision-making procedures, justice in education and opportunities and whether the democratic system fosters justice in vision.
Democratic decision-making is usually evaluated using two criteria: (a) the quality of the outcomes of the decisions and (b) the quality of the procedures for making those decisions. However, a key criterion is the ends of the decision-making process – the extent to which decision-making makes justice in society possible through the equal advancement of interests and through the quality of procedures.
Accountability, like citizenship, is contingent on the relationships that are cultivated between state and non-state actors, among non-state actors and within groups. Further:
- The nature of these relationships depends on history, cultures, structures, space, inequalities, perceptions of inequalities and the forms of engagement that are legitimised as a result.
- Social conditioning influences how people learn and opt to respond. It shapes opportunities and spaces for participation.
- Opportunities for exercising accountability are a condition of enablement that involves social rules and social relations as well as an individual’s self-conception and skills.
A human and society-centred approach is necessary for improving accountability processes and outcomes. Although there are no easy answers, there are a number of issues that relational approaches raise by using a lens of social justice:
- Empowerment strategies must tackle the ideologies that justify inequalities, the patterns of access to and control over economic, natural and intellectual resources and the institutions that reinforce existing power structures.
- It is important to recognise the ingrained perceptions that skew accountability in unproductive ways, such as by holding one group to account as opposed to others on the basis of class or race, for example.
- Routes to power among those presumed powerless, such as children, should not be underestimated. They can draw on the lessons of their contexts to wield power in the niches they know and in the manner they know.
- Early conditioning of children within their families helps them to make alternative choices when presented with real opportunities. These less tangible but potent factors affect the quality of citizenship.
- It important that education builds knowledge of citizenship, particularly of the mutual relations of accountability that people should expect and contribute to as a citizen within democracy.
- State and non-state actors should not approach citizens as objects to be taught at a distance. Rather, they should seek equalising dialogue.
