Filgueiras, F. (2021). Accountability in Democracies. In: Harris, P., Bitonti, A., Fleisher, C.S., Skorkjær Binderkrantz, A. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Interest Groups, Lobbying and Public Affairs . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13895-0_111-1

Accountability is how individuals or organizations are evaluated and judged for their performance or behavior related to something for which they are responsible. In democracies, the accountability function is institutionally exercised in the domain of a pluralist democracy, where interest groups can act as accountability holders. Accountability is an essential principle for the construction of publicity for government policies and actions – accountability demanding that democracies’ institutional design requires representation and oversight. Interest groups act as intermediaries in the representation process and can influence different policies, and they must also be accountable to their representatives.