The word accountability is often tossed around in politics.  Activists and passionate social media users speak of “holding our politicians accountable”. They willingly e-sign MoveOn.org petitions along with millions of others to influence politicians. Sites like NPR take politicians to task by fact checking their campaign speeches. But what does any of this mean? When it comes to politics, are voters actually capable of holding politicians accountable?

For starters, there is no such thing as accountability. It is a relationship, not a thing.

Student accountability is a relationship with a teacher

In school, accountability is a relationship. Students are accountable to teachers. Teachers guide students and expect them to produce work. Students are accountable by handing in their work to be graded. Daily they are accountable by being in class and raising their hands to answer questions. They have ways of being accountable. The bottom line: Accountability is a relationship between students and teachers.

At work, accountability is a relationship with a boss

At work, accountability is a relationship between you and your boss. At times, it can even become a scare tactic. Your boss outlines the specific objectives of a project or a task. You’re assigned a deadline. Your level of success is based on how efficiently you complete your project and if you make your assigned deadline. You answer your boss when he asks for progress. There are annual, semi-annual or even quarterly reviews. In this relationship, your boss has multiple ways of holding you accountable.

Where is accountability in politics?

We speak of holding our politicians accountable. But we don’t really have any tangible ways of doing this.

If a student misses a homework assignment or fails to participate, he risks a lower grade. Or even worse, he could fail a class. This would have serious repercussions on his future, including attending college.

If a worker misses the project deadline given by her boss, there will be consequences. Her work environment could become tense.  In extreme circumstances, she could lose her job.

But when a politician makes a mistake, there’s no impending fear of what could happen in the near future. If they fail to pass legislation that the majority of the nation wants approved, some people might get angry. Most won’t even know if their own representative and senators voted for or against it. That politician won’t lose his or her job because of it.

If a presidential candidate makes false remarks during a speech, journalists may catch them. They may run stories about them. But for most of that candidate’s supporters, the lies are not enough to dethrone him or her as a popular choice. And that’s our only way of expressing disapproval. We can only approve every two years, or disapprove. We have no real influence between elections. The candidates are not accountable to us.

Accountability is not yet the relationship between voters and politicians

Politicians might get unflattering press and tweets. But they’ll still have their jobs tomorrow. In this 2013 poll, 73% disapproved of the job that Republicans were doing in Congress. Yet they picked up seats in 2014. Politicians understand that they represent us. They understand that it’s our power they are wielding. But they don’t answer to us. Week to week and month to month, we don’t reward or punish them. We don’t effect the quality of their careers. Accountability is a relationship that we do not have with them.

So politicians are not accountable to voters, Yet…

To see the type of reform we’re unanimously asking for, to see politicians being accountable to the people, we’d need ways of grading them, of expressing approval and disapproval. We’d need the quality of their political careers resting in our hands.

Accountability is not a tangible thing that’s either present or absent. It’s a relationship. If your politician is accountable to voters, they are accountable to you. If they are not accountable to you, they’re not accountable. Period. Accountability is a relationship. And in our current form of representative democracy, it’s not a relationship that politicians have with voters.

If you want to see real accountability with voters, we’ll need a system designed to deliver it. That’s what we’re building here at PeopleCount.