Usos de la accountability en la administración pública.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the origin of the word accountability in the field of public administration focusing on three of its most commonly used meanings: accountability, transparency and responsibility. The methodology consisted of analyzing theoretical and empirical papers related to the organizing activity of the State. Results show that: 1) accountability has no literal translation into Spanish; 2) rendering accounts and transparency are two common terms referring to the obligation that those who govern have to informed those who are being governed about the exercise of public function. Language barriers between the voices transparency, accountability and responsibility make it possible to locate the original, substantial meaning in the disciplinary field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]