Moral accountability at the time of a crisis

This study explores the moral dimension of accountability as it emerges out of crises. While prior research recognizes that accountability often has a moral dimension, little research examines how the redefinition of public values brought about by crises affects the way in which authorities render an account of their actions and reasons. Inspired by studies in the sociology of worth, we examine how the fight against Covid-19 by Italian authorities was accompanied by an evolving conception on morality that shaped the discourses on accountability enacted by governmental institutions. We show how authorities experimented with changing interpretations of accountability as they navigated through the domestic, the industrial and the civic orders of worth. The evolving nature of this process provides a representation of how the moral foundations of accountability are established and how criteria for evaluations are formed. This process takes place before accounts are rendered, and before institutions are actually evaluated.