52. Integrity is the link between responsibility and accountability
Integrity is the connection between responsibility and accountability because it is the consistency between the two: accountability reveals responsibility and responsibility cannot exist without accountability. Accountability is also an important mechanism for promoting integrity and acknowledging others. SPs can therefore come under serious criticism for lack of accountability, and the more power, the more serious the criticism.
Walter Raleigh, a 16th century British writer, stated, “Wise men [should be] like coffers with double bottoms; which when others look into, being opened, they see not all that they hold.”283
This chimes in with a rule proposed by the poet Ovid, “One who lives well, lives unnoticed.”284
Machiavelli also followed the same line: a monarch or prince should appear outwardly virtuous and profess to be honest, but should not shrink from secretly developing immoral practices.285
In short, SPs should not be open or transparent. Does this also apply to SPs who strive for integrity?
The previous chapter was about taking and demanding responsibility. This is somewhat different from being accountable. Responsibility is about the state of affairs in a given situation, where a person’s task, duty, moral liability, or influence comes into play. Accountability is about informing others, a forum, potentially leading to a debate, judgment, decisions, and consequences, such as sanctions or discharge. Integrity is not only about taking and demanding responsibility, but also about being accountable. Integrity is the consistency, the connection between responsibility and accountability. In providing an account, a justification, you reveal the responsibility you take. There is no responsibility without accountability, because responsibility only gains substance when an account is provided. Equally there is no accountability without responsibility, because an account only has substance relating to the responsibility one takes. You cannot give an answer (an account) if you have nothing to answer (no responsibility). SPs who attempt to avoid accountability by claiming they have responsibility for an issue lack integrity (as they are operating on the misconception that because the matter is their responsibility they do not owe anyone an explanation). The UK parliamentary Code of Conduct therefore rightly states, “Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.”286
Accountability is a core element of a democracy, or to put it in stronger terms, a minister stated, “Public accountability is the soul of democracy and the willingness to be accountable is the first requirement of an official.”287 Public accountability is important for democratic supervision of use of public power and preservation of the people’s sovereignty. Other forms of accountability for SPs, within their institutions or collaborative groups, aim to prevent irresponsibility and promote responsibility in their use of power. Accountability also contributes to the legitimacy of SPs and the institutions they represent.288 For that reason, in the view of political scientist Dennis Thompson, the vices of concealment, such as misleading people, hushing matters up, and manipulation, are the most dangerous,289 as they involve SPs evading and frustrating accountability and with it their own responsibility.
Lack of accountability can therefore be a serious charge. A mayor was required to step down for his lack of accountability. He had not committed a specific offense, nor was his passive accountability condemned: he always answered questions from council members and alderman. The point of criticism from the municipal council was that he was not proactively accountable in reporting contacts he maintained with agencies in the municipality and his commitments to them. He should have taken the initiative instead of waiting until he was asked to do so. He was accused of a lack of democratic integrity, with an appeal to the applicable code of conduct, which stated, “The actions of a political incumbent are transparent, ensuring optimal accountability and providing the supervisory bodies with full insight into actions and the motives behind them.” In a sense, as a mayor remarked about himself, an SP is a public bod