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Notwithstanding our collective failure to define the term to the satisfaction of all, decades of focused attention on accountability have at the least made us aware of those conditions that have made our task so challenging. What we have learned about our subject can be summarized as follows:  Accountability is multifunctional  Accountability is polymorphic  Accountability is situated  Accountability is promiscuous I briefly consider each of these "features" of accountability and conclude by offering a radically different approach to our subject that might help us emerge from the intellectual rut of typologies and cases that we now seem to occupy. I argue that by refocusing our view of accountability – by seeing it in the broader historical context of what I term "meta-problems" – we will be able to take the study of accountability to a different and more fruitful level. As a demonstration of the "meta-problem" perspective's potential, I offer a retelling of one watershed historical episode. I conclude with some brief observations.

An introduction notes that a teacher symposium, "Nurturing Civic Lives: Developmental Perspectives on Civic Education," is a byproduct of an American Political Science Assoc Task Force on Civic Education project to forge working linkages among political scientists & developmental psychologists for the purpose of enhancing the quality & effectiveness of civic education. The history of civic education in America is traced from its roots in a "traditionalist" educational philosophy, through the rise of a developmentalist philosophy of progressivist education that rejected civic education, & finally to the emergence of a civic development perspective that is a response to both a renewed traditionalist movement in education & a growing awareness of the poor state of current civic life. The impact of Lawrence Kohlberg's (1968) moral development approach is discussed, along with the value of cross-disciplinary perspectives, & the growing volume of research on youth civic development. A brief synopsis of each contribution is included. 25 References. J. Lindroth

Using the concepts of thick & thin relationships as the basis for ethical behavior, this paper critiques the emphasis on discretion in the mainstream administrative ethics literature & argues that moral & other dilemmas facing public administrators provide a more useful frame. Two examples drawn from the UK Hutton Investigation into the death of David Kelly are used to demonstrate the relevance & usefulness of this approach. Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.

Scholars of administrative ethics have recently been attentive to the problem of so-called administrative evil. The authors argue that evil can be understood as a socially constructed category of agents and acts specific to particular circumstances and moral communities, and the authors apply a framework of accountability to reflect the dynamics of that constructed reality. Selected examples of efforts to hold evil actors accountable or otherwise to account for evil acts illustrate a paradox: Responses to so-called evil may themselves be labeled evil in hindsight or by members of other contemporaneous communities. In light of this paradox and attendant ethical dilemmas, the authors argue that conventional ethical and behavioral prescriptions are necessary but insufficient protections against catastrophic mis-, mal-, or nonfeasance in and by organizations.