Module Aims & Objectives:
The aim of the module is to make students familiar with current issues in the theory and practice of accountability. These issues are explored in the lectures and seminars in the context of specific activities, professions, and spheres of life. Students will also examine the notions of responsibility, trust, and transparency, which are closely related to accountability. The module will consider arrangements designed to achieve accountability, particularly in relation to corporate accountability and responsibility; the accountability and responsibility of politicians and civil servants; professional accountability; police accountability, and democratic accountability. The various options of managerialism, hierarchy, political accountability, legal accountability, self-government of the professions versus external regulation, and democratic control of the controllers will be considered and evaluated. The module will enable students to approach accountability more thoughtfully and competently.
Learning Outcomes
On completing the module, students should
understand why and how accountability has become a salient issue in corporate, public and professional life
be familiar with the ramifications of accountability as an ideal, and especially its relationship to notions of public and social responsibility; the effective performance of public and professional functions; business and professional ethics; and the concepts of hierarchical and democratic control and power;
acquire a dispassionate and detached attitude to claims about social responsibility and transparency, charters, benchmarking, codes of practice and principles of corporate governance, and democratisation and empowerment, as solutions to the problem of accountability. They should also have a critical familiarity with some of the difficulties inherent in the exercise of corporate, political and professional office, and with the implications of these difficulties for the prospects of accountability as an aspect of democratisation;
have a clearer understanding of what it is to present a well-structured, thoughtful and coherently developed essay.
The aim of the module is to make students familiar with current issues in the theory and practice of accountability. These issues are explored in the lectures and seminars in the context of specific activities, professions, and spheres of life. Students will also examine the notions of responsibility, trust, and transparency, which are closely related to accountability. The module will consider arrangements designed to achieve accountability, particularly in relation to corporate accountability and responsibility; the accountability and responsibility of politicians and civil servants; professional accountability; police accountability, and democratic accountability. The various options of managerialism, hierarchy, political accountability, legal accountability, self-government of the professions versus external regulation, and democratic control of the controllers will be considered and evaluated. The module will enable students to approach accountability more thoughtfully and competently.
Learning Outcomes
On completing the module, students should
understand why and how accountability has become a salient issue in corporate, public and professional life
be familiar with the ramifications of accountability as an ideal, and especially its relationship to notions of public and social responsibility; the effective performance of public and professional functions; business and professional ethics; and the concepts of hierarchical and democratic control and power;
acquire a dispassionate and detached attitude to claims about social responsibility and transparency, charters, benchmarking, codes of practice and principles of corporate governance, and democratisation and empowerment, as solutions to the problem of accountability. They should also have a critical familiarity with some of the difficulties inherent in the exercise of corporate, political and professional office, and with the implications of these difficulties for the prospects of accountability as an aspect of democratisation;
have a clearer understanding of what it is to present a well-structured, thoughtful and coherently developed essay.