Foreword - Bayard L. Catron Series Editor's Introduction - Henry D. Kass Acknowledgments 1 - Introduction - An outline of the argument 2 - Three meaning of responsability: agency, accountability, and obligation - A brief history of responsability Responsability as agency, accountability, and obligation The combination of responsability's meanings in everyday usage Conclusion 3 - The rationalist conception of responsible government Rationalism responsability in summary The modernist heritage of rationalist responsability The internal debates Simon versus Waldo Finer versus Friedrich Burke and Cooper Similarities between modernism and rationalist responsability Conclusion 4 - Paradox and personal responsability Conclusion 4 - Paradox and personal responsability Redemption and the existencial paradox The privatization of the individual Categories of paradox The paradoxal character of personal responsibility The countervailing relation of self-reflexivity and commitment to the other conclusion 5 - The paradox of obligation The problem of political obligation The patologies of obligation Public obligations and private commitments Reframing the problem of obligation Conclusion 6 - The paradox of agency The paradox of agency and the Overassertion of the individual The paradox of agency and the overassertion of the collectivity Conclusion 7 - The paradox of accountability Political and professional responsability Rationalism's dichotomies as the source of the paradox The contingency of decision The masquerade of effectiveness and control Reframing the paradox of accountability Conclusion 8 - Conclusion: rationalism and the paradox of courage References Index About the Author