Accountability requires a reliable link between what superiors seek and what subordinates do.

Evidence

Accountability is the link between bureaucracy and democracy. Modern democracy depends on the accountability of bureaucracies to carry out declared policy and otherwise administer the ongoing structures of governmentally determined opportunity and regulation. If this is the case, accountability must mean more than simply having to answer to a superior, or expecting to be called to account for one’s actions. This is because these definitions leave open precisely what is at issue: whether there is any reliable relationship between what superiors seek and what subordinates do. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1155

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes accountability from mere answerability to a superior — clarifies the concept the reader needs to track how discretion institutionalizes particular decisions.
• XREF: connects to: Hierarchical subordinates displace responsibility by presuming tacit approval from above — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1395; Institutions shield upper echelons from accountability by deflecting blame to subordinate causes. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 549

Broader Connections

• Hierarchical subordinates displace responsibility by presuming tacit approval from above #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1395
• Institutions shield upper echelons from accountability by deflecting blame to subordinate causes. #complicates (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 549