Why Accountability Matters

Accountability is basic to any account of liberal democracy. Politicians do not have tenure. They serve at the pleasure of their constituents. We rely on judges to determine whether the conduct of politicians is legal, but to decide whether it is proper we must rely on ourselves. Of equal importance is the example of political accountability. Disgraced, unsuccessful or unwanted politicians are not consigned to ignominy of a return to civil society. They are moved about, sent to Brussels (Vidal-Quadras, Borrell), made ambassadors (Clos) or executives of companies whose viability depends on state licensing or concessions (Piqué, Macià Alavedra). In as much as they are part of the party, they are all too big to fail. The few exceptions are exceptionally talented (Miquel Roca) or of exceptionally rigid principles (Julio Anguita). What message does this convey? What example does it set? It tells us that actions have mitigated consequences, that responsibility can be evaded or deflected, and blame washed away; that group membership and cohesion count for more than individual conduct. Conduct becomes a matter of doing what one can get away with rather than what one should be done. These attitudes carry over from public into private life. If those in the public eye, subject to scrutiny, can evade responsibility--if their wiggle room is almost infinite--how can we hope to install a sense of responsibility elsewhere?

By way of example: the large organisation for which I work attracts people from all over Europe and, increasingly, from China. The work I oversee entails a great deal of writing, and much of it is fraudulent: plagiarised or barely paraphrased. Every confrontation over the issue plays out the same way: I'm given excuses, told that the offending passage was copied out of an old notebook, or that original work was not expected in the Catalan or German or Italian setting with whose norms the individual was better acquainted (mine, it seems, come as a surprise). Nobody admits to wrong-doing or apologises. One day a young Chinese woman came to my office. Her work was original and ambitious. I'd already told her how impressed I was, but she wanted me to talk her through her reasoning and her writing from beginning to end. "So I guess I have to work harder," she said when we were done. If her attitude is characteristically Chinese, Europe stands in need of a little Chinese acculturation.