Accountability and its Limits

Abstract

A number of recurring themes emerge from the foregoing survey of accountability. The first, and overarching theme, is that accountability is context-dependent. It varies according to the institutional setting, the type of activity, and the respective interests and capacities of the parties to the accountability relationship. The logical dimensions of accountability may be common (who, to whom, for what and how) but what they designate defies simple categorisation and cannot be adequately captured in a simple typology or a finite set of accountability models.