A modern alchemy....

Accountability is real. It is a necessary and undeniably important part of our modern existence. It is the claimed capacity for accountability to magically transform social behavior and relationships into some desirable state that demands skepticism and requires careful examination. Democracy, justice, ethical behavior and effective performance do not just emerge by putting in place mechanisms that require or imply account-giving actions. Yet that is the assumption -- an alchemist perspective -- standing at the center of every form of administrative and programmatic reform put forward by those who advise or conduct governance at every level of political and corporate life. Period