The Modern Presidency and Theories of Accountability: Old Wine and Old Bottles

Abstract

The question this article poses is how accountable is the modern presidency? That question begets others such as whom are presidents accountable? and on what matters are presidents held to account? The article attempts to clarify the concept of accountability and to identify several of its dimensions. It also relates the idea of accountability to other notions important to a theory of the modern presidency such as responsibility. The concept of presidential accountability is defined here simply as being answerable. That simple definition is viewed from the perspective of constitutional logic and from the perspective of various forms and sources of accountability such as a priori checks and a posteriori sanctions, as well as legal, institutional, political and moral sources of accountability. An assessment of the state of accountability in the modern presidency leads me to emphasize the political sources of accountability, especially its plebiscitory dimensions, and its continuous (a posterior...