Accountability, Democratic Theory, and Higher Education

Abstract

Accountability defines the appropriate relationship between elected and nonelected officials. Herman Finer emphasized elected officials’, and Carl Friedrich emphasized nonelected officials’, professional values and knowledge to determine the actions of nonelected officials. The Higher Education Amendments of 1972 and more recent state-imposed requirements on higher education comply with classical definitions of accountability and responsibility. Neither Friedrich nor Finer provided a rich enough definition of what works in practice. The relationships between elected and nonelected officials include elements of both. This suggests that policy making can best occur with a blending of elected and nonelected officials’ values and preferences. Developing this kind of relationship in higher education will be especially challenging given the history of autonomy of higher education professionals, the difficulty of measuring effectively what higher education does, and the values of academic freedom that can speak truth to power no matter how painful that may be.