Mark Bovens

“The minimal conceptual consensus entails, first of all, that accountability is about providing answers; is about answerability towards others with a legitimate claim to demand an account. Accountability is then a relational concept, linking those who owe an account and those to whom it is owed. Accountability is a relational concept in another sense as well, linking agents and others for whom they perform tasks or who are affected by the tasks they perform. This relation is most commonly described in the current literature in terms of agents and principals, although some also speak about accountors and accountees, actors and forums, or agents and audiences. Accountability is furthermore a retrospective—ex post—activity. Finally, accountability is a consequential activity as anyone who is being held accountable may testify—as Behn (2001) says, only a little hyperbolically, “accountability means punishment.”
― Mark Bovens, The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability