Help with "accountability"

Question

I work with this kind of sentence: "Responsibility without accountability is not enforceable." For the word and concept of "accountability" (algo como capacidad de rendir cuentas a terceros en base a medidas objectivas) I am looking for adjectives and adverbs related to "rendir cuenta".

In academia it seems the English word is used rather freely... ay! globalization so I hope to find expressions and words, or idiomatic expressions to help convey the distinction between responsibility (which refers to a much more complex and "qualitative" relationship) and accountability (which is a more mechanical, quantitative, relationship).

(yes "to enforce" is tricky too for this sentence, maybe ideas about it can help translate the phrase more concisely.)

¡Gracias!

Yes I agree that responsibility without accouantibity is not enforcable it is like having power without authority a dangerous situation for all - FELIZ77, Jul 24, 2010

it is also like having a laws eg to stop stealing, but employing no police officers to ensure it is enforced - FELIZ77, Jul 24, 2010

It is also like having laws about crash helmets, having insurance, licences,silences and lights without a police officer to enforce it. A typical scenario in the pueblos! - aeroplod, Jul 25, 2010

Answer 1

As the terms "accountability" and "responsibility" are often used interchangeably, it is understandable why this phrase might be difficult. To me it seems that the essence of your statement may boil down to something like:

Knowledge of a debt/fault without acceptance of such debt/fault is unenforceable/not worth the trouble/worthless

or possibly

Responsibility without acceptance of such reponsibility is valueless

---

If I had to guess, perhaps it might be said something like:

?Observación (de una falta/deuda/culpabilidad) sin aceptación no es ejecutable/no merece la pena

?Responsibilidad sin humildad/sumisión/rendimientos no tiene valor.

?Reconocimiento (de deuda/culpabilidad) sin (sentimientos de) obligación de repagarlo no es ejecutable

?El conocimiento de responsibilidad sin poner en práctica la obligación de tal responsibilidad queda sin valor/no merece la pena.

Maybe someone else can polish these up or lend some other advice

I was thinking along the lines of "obligación", too. I also like "rendimientos" - but still I can't think of a translation using either that conveys exactly the same meaning without getting really wordy. - Gekkosan, Jul 24, 2010

Answer 2

¡muchas gracias a todos! this helps get into the "spanish mindset" which is what I need to do to work with difficult concepts.

At this level the translation is more cultural than syntactic

Answer 3

Hola,

These concepts are always super tough to translate, but, if I had to interpret the sentence right now I would say something like:

"La responsabilidad, sin el compromiso del reconocimiento, no se puede hacer cumplir."

Hope this helps, but I am sure that there other ways to put it.

Answer 4

Responsibility concerns the way that a person conducts him or her -self in their life including the way, that they behave in their job

for example: a responsible primary school teacher creates a safe environment for the children in her class and makes sure that she always plans her lessons carefully so that she can communicate the subject matter clearly and that the children are given the best opportunity to ask questions and learn

it is a more personal concept as it relates to how individuals behave in any given sphere of life eg work, family social life etc...

Accountability is somewhat different in that it relates to the person/s to whom indivuals are expected to give an account of their actions should they not act in a responsible manner

There is, invariably, a line of accountability which is sometimes illustrated in the records kept by many companies in diagramatic form - like a famaily tree: showing the boss/chief at the top and the managers under him/her. These diagrams show upwardly the line of accountibility.

So responsibility is personal and concerns/focuses on individual behaviour

Accountability is more concerned with giving an account of questionable behaviour and indirectly speaking, the line of people to whom each person is responsible or expected to give an account of their actions

eg:

Head teacher accountable to governers, parents and Local Authority (if applicable)

Deputy accountable to Head Teacher

Head of Year accountable to Deputy Head

Class Teacher accounatble to Head of Year (Year 2: 6 - 7 year olds)

teaching assistant accountable to class teacher

One final thing, when people act irresponsibly like, for example: a number of the politicians in the English parliament recently were involved in a wellpublicised scandel about claiming expenses. All those who claimed excessive amounts were held accountable for their irreponsible behaviour and many were asked to repay the money.A minority were even brought to court and charged

I hope that this helps clarify the distinction between the two concepts we experience

Yes, right good. I understand those concepts too, when I think in English. But how do you go about translating it? - Gekkosan, Jul 24, 2010

Answer 5

I agree that both "accountability" and "enforce" or "enforceability" are difficult terms to translate. One of the problems it that usually "Accountability" is simply translated as "responsabilidad", which is close, but not quite the same thing.

Maybe it is a cultural thing, that Anglic cultures can conceive the idea that someone can be responsible, but not accountable, whereas perhaps Hispanic cultures consider that if someone is responsible, it follows that he or she is accountable. So to say that someone is responsible and accountable for something may be seen as redundant...

Just my theory. I would love to see if someone can come up with a satisfactory translation for this.