Table 2.

Summary of the results of the meta-review

Discipline	Authors	Accountability definition	Who is accountable to whom?	For what?	Why?	Processes	Outcomes	Contextual conditions
Political science/public administration	Steets,95	Partnership accountability (partnership: voluntary arrangement between public, and/or private and/or civil society actors)	Multitude of organisations involved in public policy to formal and informal principals and legal and fiscal authorities	Finances compliance with rules and processes performance	Delegated authority	Information enforcement—clarifying roles and expectations of principals and agents	Not mentioned	Collaboration between actors
	Mulgan,96 Mulgan,30	Plural accountability in modern democracies	Government and public institutions to citizens or organisations that act on citizen's behalf (networks of accountability)	Performance compliance with rules and regulations	Delegated power, retributive justice and public deliberation	Reporting, justification effective rectification: sanctions, remedial action	Responsiveness	Responsibility
	Behn,60	Mutual compact accountability	Public managers to multiple stakeholders/citizens	Finances, fairness through rules and processes performance	Flexibility in management	Verification of standards for processes and trust regarding performance	Not mentioned	Cooperation, collective action
	Boin et al87	Political accountability	Political actors and institutions to stakeholders	Goal achievements	Name and shame	Public investigation	Improved performance public institutions	Vibrant media, civil society
	Schedler58	Public sector accountability	Public institutions to citizens	Political, financial, administrative, legal, professional	Not mentioned	Answerability and/or enforcement	To curb or control political power	Not mentioned
Development studies	Newell and Bellour,47 Newell and Wheeler48	Rights-based accountability	Institutions to citizens	Resources	Empowerment through collective action	Strengthening demand side accountability: ‘enforcing rights over resources’	Social justice	Not mentioned
	Devas and Grant59	Political accountability at multiple levels (central-decentralised levels)	Multiple accountability relationships between government, decentralised government agencies, public administration and citizens	Resources	Not mentioned	Information central level leadership	Public trust	Political will government
	Paul49	Microlevel exit and voice accountability	Public sector institutions towards citizens	Service delivery	Customer power	Strengthening demand mechanisms exit and voice based on information, organisational incentives	Service performance improvement	Perceived advantages and costs of using exit and voice
	Ackerman50	Social accountability	Not mentioned	Service delivery	Co-governance or empowered participatory governance	Participation in decision-making	Not mentioned	Not mentioned
Organisational sociology	Frink and Klimoski52	Organisational and self-accountability (internal)	Employee to organisation	Not mentioned	Authority	Social norms and norm expectations, evaluation, sanctions	Long-term organisational viability	Not mentioned
	Kearns51	Organisational accountability (external)	Organisation to the public	Compliance with rules, laws and regulations+answering the public's expectations	Organisation needs to be deserving of the public's trust	Monitoring organisational standards of accountability	Public trust	Not mentioned
Ethics	Daniels28	‘Accountability for reasonableness’	Institutions to citizens	Resource allocation of primary social goods that support human capabilities	Collective action curbs power	Fair decision-making processes	Social justice	Common value of fairness in process
	Moncrieffe53	Relational accountability	Democratic institutions to citizens	Dependent on the actor and the context	Power	Equity based democratic institutions and decision-making	Human development, democratic stability	Democratic culture, institutional context