53
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Sareen (ed.), Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26891-6_5
CHAPTER 5
A Few Reflections on Accountability
Christian Lund
Abstract Accountability is a form of communication between people
and institutions where one is held to account by the other. Parts of the
scholarship distinguish between upward and downward accountability.
Upward accountability would involve acknowledgement of an authority
to sanction or validate operations or claims, whereas downward accountability refers to the institution of authority being responsible to the general public for their actions. While the directionality of accountability is
important, a case from Indonesia suggests that they may indeed be coconstitutive. By deliberately and publicly complying with the idea of
state land ownership, and by being selective about what institutions represent ‘the state’, the farmers used their upward accountability to produce downward accountability in terms of recognition of their rights.
The farmers exploited the separation of powers in their attempt to gain
a new visibility.
Keywords Accountability • Recognition • Social contract • Indonesia
C. Lund (*)
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen,
Copenhagen, Denmark
e-mail: clund@ifro.ku.dk
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Sareen (ed.), Enabling Sustainable Energy Transitions,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26891-6_5
CHAPTER 5
A Few Reflections on Accountability
Christian Lund
Abstract Accountability is a form of communication between people
and institutions where one is held to account by the other. Parts of the
scholarship distinguish between upward and downward accountability.
Upward accountability would involve acknowledgement of an authority
to sanction or validate operations or claims, whereas downward accountability refers to the institution of authority being responsible to the general public for their actions. While the directionality of accountability is
important, a case from Indonesia suggests that they may indeed be coconstitutive. By deliberately and publicly complying with the idea of
state land ownership, and by being selective about what institutions represent ‘the state’, the farmers used their upward accountability to produce downward accountability in terms of recognition of their rights.
The farmers exploited the separation of powers in their attempt to gain
a new visibility.
Keywords Accountability • Recognition • Social contract • Indonesia
C. Lund (*)
Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen,
Copenhagen, Denmark
e-mail: clund@ifro.ku.dk