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Job vacancy texts for the Dutch mayoralty provide original evidence about what councillors expect of facilitative mayors. In this article, we conduct an automated content analysis of 231 advertisements and use focus groups to interpret our results. We find that the desired qualities of mayoral candidates include showing morally appropriate behaviour, acting as a liaison within local government and beyond, as well as vigour, empathy, and communicative skill. Further, we find that municipal size does affect the desirability of leadership competencies, but also that its impact is limited. This finding suggests that desired local leadership qualities may be less context-dependent than previously assumed.

Dutch mayors are in the curious position that, by law, they are required to act against any integrity violations by their fellow political executives and municipal councillors. At the same time, they are fully accountable to the local council and increasingly dependent on the political support of those they oversee for remaining in office and for their capacity to govern. Data collected from four focus groups and nine interviews indicate that this dependence has produced a precarious situation of 'perverted accountability' in which mayors, because they perceive social and career risks, are more likely to refrain from assertive action against integrity violations than the accountability and ethical leadership literature suggests. Here, it is argued that there is an institutional aspect to such reluctance to be an effective moral leader that goes beyond Dutch mayors simply having weak personalities. The current study finds support for the unfashionable argument that accountability can be bad for democracy. It contributes to the study of ethical leadership by identifying perceived personal and positional risks as real-life impediments to ethical leadership and by drawing attention to the complexities of ethical leadership in the realm of politics.

Job vacancy texts for the Dutch mayoralty provide original evidence about what councillors expect of facilitative mayors. In this article, we conduct an automated content analysis of 231 advertisements and use focus groups to interpret our results. We find that the desired qualities of mayoral candidates include showing morally appropriate behaviour, acting as a liaison within local government and beyond, as well as vigour, empathy, and communicative skill. Further, we find that municipal size does affect the desirability of leadership competencies, but also that its impact is limited. This finding suggests that desired local leadership qualities may be less context-dependent than previously assumed.

Voluntary accountability, where people and organizations willingly subject themselves to scrutiny, seems counterintuitive. The common understanding is that increased accountability has negative consequences for the accountor; and so why would anyone voluntarily seek accountability when it is not required? Current explanations hold that external pressures can explain accountability‐seeking behaviour, and the proponents are not convinced by the argument that it is beneficial to the accountor. In contrast, this study finds that accountability often serves the accountor's interests. A six‐part typology of accountor‐beneficial motivations is developed, the empirical adequacy of which is tested through extensive case studies. The results show that public accountability can be a means rather than a burden in the hands of political executive leaders. These findings challenge the conventional principal–agent understanding of accountability and suggest that the study of the poorly understood practice of democratic accountability would benefit from a more leader‐centric perspective.