Speakers and writers calling for greater accountability typically employ the term in three concrete contexts: to refer to greater responsibility and responsiveness; to allude to greater attention to the "community" (generally a euphemism for blacks, Mexican-Americans, American Indians, or other minorities); or the greater commitment to "values" (e.g., as in the phrase "higher standards of morality"). The unifying thread is the symbolic use of the term accountability. Though it may not necessarily be-indeed perhaps rarely is-the consciously intended meaning, the chief definition of this term which in fact emerges is that of "accountability as gesture." The hallmark of accountability as gesture is that it is pure norm with little or no instrumentality attached. That is
