ABSTRACT
Accountability is a concept closely connected with authority, and authority is a very different thing from power. One can be in authority and have a right to demand information but have no power to give this effect. On the other hand one might possess the power to mount a Watergate break-in or enforce a search but without the authority to justify it. The chapter suggests that responsibility and accountability have been confused because "responsible to" means much the same as "accountable to" and "answerable to". Accountability, then, requires some kind of justification in terms of rules and legitimate procedures. Accountability is a verbal device for endorsing what people may do or try to do to us by implying that it is in some sense justified, usually by reference to certain reasonable duties. The range of justification which might warrant accountability is the same as that which warrants the authority.
