The focus of the essay is on political accountability in a broad sense, as a claim by citizens that the state and governance powers are accountable for their choices and meet expectations. This point of view shifts the question from the legal ascription of responsibility, to the exercise of government where the governed are faced with a more complex authority that is based on presumed neutral expertise that neutralizes the possibility of controlling choices. In the current neoliberal context, which emphasizes individual responsibility and devalues delegation, there is the paradox that this growth in self responsibility is matched by a lack of responsibility on the part of decision makers working with the support of highly for malized social and economic sciences, which are difficult to challenge.
