Responsibility
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institution is none other than the people, in the sometimes negative sense given to this word in the eighteenth century.32 In that case we need to renew an old line of inquiry and ask how the p eople are to be represented, given an audible voice and the power to intervene, so that they may be come an attentive and critical examiner of government. Right away one meets with a difficulty that is symmetrical to the one we encountered earlier in connection with the conditions for imputing responsibility, when there are too many hands taking part in a decision. Here the problem is that t here are too many voices.33 In order to give the exercise of responsibility-as-justification its full effect, ways w ill have to be found to formally constitute opinion, in the proper sense of the term. Here again patience and determination are required, for it is a question of forming citizen groups of a new kind, dedicated to channeling and structuring social expression. This is a matter of some urgency, to which I will return in due course. The third form of accountability, responsibility-as-evaluation, involves a public assessment of both the efficiency and the effectiveness of gov ernment policies. It seeks to measure the gap between intentions and results when words and deeds diverge; to discover why, for example, an educational policy aimed at promoting equal opportunity has failed, or why the expected redistributive effects of an economic policy have not been fully realized. Understanding the reasons for disappointments of this kind, particularly when the consequences are unforeseen and harmful, is crucially important today. Considerable effort is now devoted to monitoring the implementation of government programs and evalu ating their performance.34 It is a complicated business, however, requiring quite detailed technical analysis in order to be properly carried out.35 Even if the complexity of the m atters u nder review makes it necessary that such monitoring and evaluation draw upon all relevant expertise, the quantitative methods of the social sciences unavoidably occupy a preeminent place. Making sure that this type of analysis w ill be the servant of democratic ideals, and not their master, is essential. Here again the media have a major role to play alongside researchers. These three forms of responsibility-as-accountability have histori cally been a part of the role reserved for parliaments. We have nonethe less seen how the manner in which they are exercised has gradually come to express a more direct relationship between governed and gov erning, not only as a consequence of the demand that accountability be
