Social Accountability:
Accountability: Simply defined, accountability is the obligation of power-holders to take responsibility for their actions. It describes the rights and responsibilities that exist between people and the institutions [including governments, civil society and market actors] that have an impact on their lives (Peter and Wheeler, 2006). In this view, accountability has a political purpose to check the abuse of power by the political executive and an operational purpose ensure the effective functioning of governments (Mark Schacter, 2000).To be effective, accountability must have two components: answerability - the obligation to provide an account and the right to get a response; and enforceability - ensuring that action is taken or redress provided when accountability fails (Andreas Schedler, 1999).Accountability is a key element of a human rights-based approach, which emphasizes the relationships between the duties of the state and the corresponding entitlements of the individual. It helps identify who has a responsibility to act to ensure that rights are fulfilled.
Goetz (2006) defines accountability as whether and how power holders answer for their actions, and
…show more content…
As the disparities between rich and poor kept increasing despite the initial promise of globalization, the dissatisfaction with the government’s ability to deliver on its promise was vociferously articulated by individuals, tax-payers, civil society organizations, nongovernment organizations, and community-based organizations culminating in that great counter to the World Economic Forum – the World Social Forum. It was argued that if those in power governed by social mandate, then they were answerable for their decisions, action, and inaction to society at large – hence social accountability. Social accountability
Accountability is a subject that ranges through every spectrum of life. From simply knowing your food supply by opening the refrigerator, to knowing the exact amount of ammunition a military convoy has at its disposal, down to each individual round. When we know what the situation is, and hold each person responsible for they're actions in the situation, that is the concept of accountability at its root. If we are not to hold each other responsible for each of our own actions and choices then we will never be able to correct problems and concerns, which will make us fail as a whole because the smallest individual action can account for the gravest of concequences. In this essay I'm going to show how important accountability is in the everyday life of a United States Marine. I will do this by presenting the textbook definition of accountability then dissecting it and defining it in my own words. I will then show you how the military practices accountability with everything it does; by applying a system that is similiar to that of checks and balances. I will tie into this the Incident that occurd in 29 Palms, CA on August 31, 1988, where the failure to have accountability of all the marines on Base ultimately resulted in the negligent death of one Marine, and the ruined careers of those who were in charge of him. Lastly I will go down to the basic level of the Marine Corps: the life of the individual Marine and how he can, and naturally does to a point, apply accountability to his every action, be it on or off duty.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines accountability as: “the quality or state of being accountable; especially: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one 's actions. Accountability is one the most important aspects in the military and civilian life style. Holding Marines accountable for their actions and having every Marine and piece of gear assigned to you accounted for is required at all times. It ensures the safety and stability of all the Marines.
Accountability….What does it mean? Well this past month e lost two soldiers who are a part of our unit and voice of our unit pass away. Accountability is important and should not be taken lightly… A soldier lost his life a couple weeks ago, due to lack of accountability, and it hurt a lot of people. For so many reasons accountability is important, for example. Knowing where your soldiers are at all times helps to know what they’re doing, and what their interest are doing so. In case something happens and someone needs t know where a soldier is accountability comes into play. Army Regulation 600-20 IAW Discipline. Why is discipline so important? Because to be accounted for is a part of disciplinary actions.
Theories of global distributive justice address the following sorts of questions. Should we feel morally concerned about the large gap between the developing countries and the developed countries? What duty do us citizens have to provide assistance to the global poor? And what scale should we take the duties to?
Overall, the prospects of accountability-based reforms taking hold and becoming institutionalized are fairly good. Based on the Fernandez and Rainey framework for organizational change we see that the two steps chosen to assess accountability-based reforms in the OPD show that reforms have internal support because it improves collaboration between top managers and lower level officers by creating more manageable districts that have one go-to person that has all the responsibility. The two accountability-related tasks I chose to examine also show signs that the requirements by the court-ordered monitor show either partial or full compliancy, pointing to an upward trajectory of the institutionalization of accountability-based reforms.
According to Kettl (2015) systems have four elements for holding public administrators accountable, namely; standing setting, voluntary compliance, sanctions, and monitoring. He further states that accountability is a matter of balancing internal norms with external processes. Presidents come with their policies and influence government to be efficient, effective and expeditious in service delivery. They minimize unnecessary government overspending and cut the budget where necessary. They even apply the common phrase “doing more with less” when they want more production by employing less resources.
Ensure reciprocal accountability: The eighth policy of collaborative governance and policy design is to enable reciprocal accountability in a complex array of democratic actors, from ordinary citizens and organized stakeholders to elected officials and public administrators.
In this essay, I will present the issue of accountability in regard to non-profit organizations, the different types of this issue and to whom and how non-profits must answer or deliver in this sense. In the first section of this paper I will expand on what we understand for accountability (with emphasis on non-profit organizations). Then, in the second section of this paper I will present the many variables a non-profit organization has to respond to in regard to being accountable to the many actors involved in its activities. Lastly, in the last section of this work I will analyze the problems of accountability and if there are ways to give them a solution,
There is no question that today’s political landscape comes with many questions, concerns, and fears for our future. With the country divided and tensions rising seemingly every day, government is increasingly coming under scrutiny and perception are far from favorable these days. I think it is important that we reexamine the roles of government and understand how and why it operates as it does. I think the first and most important aspect of modern government is the idea of accountability. In class, we discussed the idea of a “golden circle of accountability.” In summary, this idea realizes that all aspects of government have a civic duty to serve society. In this regard, they are “accountable,” through the many levels of the golden circle,
Wemmers (1996) highlights that an effective criminal justice system also protects human rights. Victims are gradually being seen as the notable possessors of such rights that lead to reviews in our domestic system and also by international bodies. The protection of said rights, such as in South Africa where less express definitions between ‘victim’ and ‘human’ rights are being made by policy m...
Maki, P.L. (2009). Moving beyond a national habit in the call for accountability. Peer Review,
The prevalence and misuse of the insanity defense in our legal system is astounding. Cases upon cases site drugs, brain tumors, car accidents involving head injury, blackouts and antisocial behavior as circumstantial evidence of a crime that was committed. These crimes involve murder, rape and robbery. The question of where criminal accountability lies and how we are able to hold someone accountable for an act may boil down to the brain itself. Where in the brain do reason, morality and inhibition lie? If these areas are affected by some disorder does that then mean that a criminal is no longer held accountable for their actions? Is there a specific area of the brain where accountability itself may lie? These seem to be questions that are not only debated in the classroom, but hospitals and courtrooms as well.
Political Accountability is regarded a necessary condition for all political systems, and can be defined as “a process of being called to account to some authority for one’s actions and involves both answerability and taking responsibility”.
Krain, Matthew (2005), “AP Comparative Government and Politics Briefing Paper: Globalization,” [http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap05_comp_govpol_glob_42253.pdf], accessed 15 May 2012.
In today’s globalizing but still fragmented and dangerous world, nations more than ever need effective governments to provide security, social cohesion and order, governance, infrastructure and basic services. They need, too, a vigorous private sector to mobilize the productive forces of the market, thereby creating national wealth and a strong national economy linked to international trade and markets. These two alone are not enough, however. Without the balance and political integration provided by the action of a third sector “civil society” too often the outcome is to centralize even more power in an already highly-centralized public sector and to concentrate even more wealth in an elite segment of the private sector. A dynamic civil society is needed to bring much greater political voice, social engagement, and economic participation to grassroots citizens. The three sectors need to work together in cross-sector partnerships to advance social progress and reverse the growing gap b...