George Lakoff and Glenn W. Smith: Making Accountability Accountable

[babylonsister]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/848

George Lakoff and Glenn W. Smith: Making Accountability Accountable
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 03/15/2007


"I'm trying not to say that I'm not accountable."

—Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, Walter Reed Hospital's former commander

Now that the Democrats in Congress can hold hearings with sworn testimony, the word "accountability" has finally become a staple of the daily news. But what, exactly, does "accountability" mean?

Accountability is what is called a contested concept, that is, a concept with different meanings for different people, depending on their values. What we have found is that conservatives and progressives mean systematically different things when they use the word. This is not surprising, given the radically different meanings of "freedom" on the left and the right, as discussed in George Lakoff's book, Whose Freedom?

As with all contested concepts, there is a shared core meaning of accountability, and it is linked to the meaning of responsibility: Whoever is responsible is accountable, and can be made to answer for not living up to his or her responsibilities.

That's where the commonality ends. Responsibility itself is contested. To progressives, it means social as well as personal responsibility — responsibility for both oneself and everyone else who could be harmed by one's failure. To conservatives, it means individual responsibility only. The difference is not surprising, since conservatism is about individual responsibility while progressivism centers on both individual and social responsibility.

The difference in the meaning of accountability also follows from the general difference between progressive and conservative values. In strict father morality, which forms the basis of conservative values, the father is the unquestionable moral authority to be obeyed. It is he who holds those under his authority accountable and metes out punishment accordingly. In the conservative world view, there are legitimate authorities whose job is to hold others accountable and mete punishment for failures of individual responsibility. Their individual responsibility and whatever accountability they have is satisfied when they hold others beneath them accountable and carry out punishment.

To progressives, one is accountable to those one is responsible for — those affected and possibly harmed by one's actions. In government, accountability is paired with transparency. Government officials are supposed to be "transparent," that is, to tell the public what one is doing and why. The why is an "account" — an explanation for one's actions. One can then judge the performance of government officials as they act as well as after they act, and judge on that basis whether they have carried out their responsibilities. This progressive view accords with nurturant parent families, in which parents have a responsibility to explain to their children why they are telling them what they can and cannot do.

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[ninkasi]

1. Excellent article

I highly recommend reading this, because with the number of hearings that are going on, and will be going on in the future, we're going to be hearing a lot about accountability. It's good to know what conservatives mean when they use the word.