Responsibility

Responsibility as Agency, Cause, or Capacity

The concept of responsibility can be used to indicate that someone or something has had the power to cause a particular event to happen. In a mere descriptive sense, responsibility, in this sense of agency, coincides with causality. “Responsible for” can be replaced by “caused,” or any other expression that suggests a causal connection. Not only human agents but also things, situations, or circumstances, can be said to be responsible—for example, “a virus was responsible for the outbreak of the epidemic.” In a moral sense, however, responsibility can be ascribed only to human agents, who moreover must have the capacity to act responsibly. This implies that they must have had the possibility to act otherwise—that is, they must not have been compelled by external forces and they must have possessed sufficient mental capacities to have realized the consequences of their actions and to direct their will. This is a major issue in criminal law and moral philosophy and has sparked legal and philosophical debates about mens rea and about determinism versus free will.

Responsibility as Task, Duty, or Obligation

The concept of responsibility can also be used to indicate the tasks, duties, and obligations that flow from a social role, position, or office. For example, “The president is responsible for appointing the heads of federal agencies,” or “It was his responsibility to coordinate the crisis response.” Often the plural “responsibilities” is used, as in “She has many responsibilities.” Responsibility in this sense is often followed by the preposition “for.” This meaning of responsibility is often at stake in administrative law and is relevant in determining the width and extent of political accountability.

Responsibility as Accountability, Answerability, and Liability

Very often “being responsible” is used to indicate moral, political, or legal accountability for a sorry state of affairs. In the first instance, this may amount to simply having to provide an account to a forum, such as parliament, a congressional committee, or a legal court, and to provide information about one's conduct. Second, this can involve answerability. The forum may ask questions and the actor will be asked to provide justifications or excuses. Finally, this can involve liabilities. The forum may pass judgment on the conduct of the actor—it may approve of an annual account, denounce a policy, or publicly condemn the behavior of an official or an agency. Judgment also implies the imposition of formal or informal sanctions on the actor in case of malperformance or, for that matter, of rewards in case of adequate performance. Responsibility as accountability is often followed by the preposition “to.” This sense is highly relevant in politics, for example, with regard to the doctrine of ministerial responsibility in parliamentary systems.

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