Explanations that are actionable, not decorative. They identify the decision owner, the data or policy basis, and how the outcome can be corrected, enabling contestability and audits. Explainability for accountability is legibility plus a working correction path.
AgencyVisibility
Scope
C. Ethotechnic capabilities (what systems must be able to do). Design requirements that keep people safe when systems scale.
Genealogy
Moves explainability from transparency theater to accountability and repair.
Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. (2026). Explainability for Accountability. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/explainability-for-accountability
MLA
Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Explainability for Accountability." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/explainability-for-accountability.
Chicago
Ethotechnics Institute Research Team. "Explainability for Accountability." Ethotechnics glossary. Sep 18, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/explainability-for-accountability.
BibTeX
@misc{glossary_explainability-for-accountability,
title={Explainability for Accountability},
author={Ethotechnics Institute Research Team},
year={2026},
howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/explainability-for-accountability},
version={v1.4.0}
}
RIS
TY - WEB
TI - Explainability for Accountability
AU - Ethotechnics Institute Research Team
PY - 2026
UR - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/explainability-for-accountability
ER -
v1.7.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Non-Finality, Consequential Contradiction, and The Excluded Case, and generalized the falsified denominator into the falsified ledger — completing the five concerns and the fallibilist ground they stand on.
v1.6.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Human Non-Substitutability, Safe Incompleteness, Anti-Conversion Rights, Abstention, Constitutional Debt, Discretion Migration, and Corrigibility Rent — the person-side principles, the three abstentions, and the rent concept.
v1.5.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Exception Absorption, Exception Learning, Case Corrigibility, Structural Corrigibility, Institutional Learning, Corrective Debt, and the Workaround Presumption, formalizing the historical turn: reading institutions through their failure trajectories rather than their stated controls.
v1.4.0 · 2026-09-18 — Added Residual Complexity, Complexity Displacement, Falsified Denominator, Closure Without Remainder, Constitutional Governance, and Post-Optimization Rigor, embedding the foundational contention of burden redistribution.
v1.3.0 · 2026-09-11 — Added Attestation, Liability Record, Carve-Out, Delegation Chain, Composed Latency, and Silent-Harm Discovery, each bound to the standard clause that requires it.
v1.2.0 · 2026-09-08 — Added The Non-Conversion Principle, Exit Cost, and Jurisdictional Path Dependence, each linked to the theory essay that argues for it.