Conclusion

Abstract

Three key factors were at play as the politics of accountability evolved at this critical period: first, an interaction of two individuals, in which personality and position were essential elements and which was inherently challenging and often hostile; second, the contesting visions of the source of municipal authority: delegation from the state or self-organization of a community; and third, in response to the demand for increasingly complex municipal services, a tendency for citizens to see themselves and to be seen as consumers of what officials provided rather than as the directors of officials’ actions. It is in the microcosms of one-on-one interactions, the gadfly’s request for an accounting, that a profound shift in the way Americans defined their relationship to government in this period can be traced.