The Changing Problem of Accountability in Modern Government: an analytical agenda for reformers

Neoliberalism and Accountability Failure in the Delivery of Services Affecting the Health of the Public

“…21(p32) The combined effect of adopting this paradigm has been the normalization of a general crisis environment and of specific accidents with catastrophic consequences. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]15,19,22,[48][49][50][51][52]…”

“…However, increasingly the traditional bureaucratic value of accountability has come into conflict with the neoliberal value of efficiency. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Events in both Canada and the United Kingdom over the past 3 decades suggest that this conflict has resulted in accountability failure at the system level. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] In this article, we discuss the concept of accountability failure within the context of neoliberalism through a high-level, summary analysis of numerous cases documented in major public inquiries and reports in the United Kingdom and Canada about adverse events that affected the individual or collective health of the public.…”

“…International Journal of Health Services 48 (4) the policy and administration roles in government. The idea was to devolve administrative authority to local managers (rowing) while maintaining the policy advice capacity at the center (steering).…”

“…29 Determining how best to effectively define and implement accountability within a networked relationship remains the major challenge for modern governments. 4 Although the United Kingdom has pursued NPM more vigorously than Canada, both countries have initiated a number of public inquiries into the needless harm or death of hospital patients or citizens affected by public health crises. A broad examination of commonalities in the reports of these inquiries has informed the definition of accountability failure that is elaborated through the academic literature and discussion that follows.…”

The Public Interest and Public Administration

“…Therefore, if public administration has been suffocated under the weight of individualistic views of the public interest and the commercial ethos of the business schools, it needs urgent resuscitation both in research and as a teaching subject. The reassertion of an instrumental view of the public interest entails a renewed recognition that there needs to be a recognised and appropriately trained profession of government (Chapman, 1959), whose members are able to deal with the political and ethical dilemmas presented by their accountability upwards to political leaders, outwards to their colleagues and downwards to citizens (Elcock, 1998). In addition, they are expected to achieve economy, efficiency and effectiveness, as well as developing greater responsiveness to citizens’ needs and demands, but the ‘three Es’ and responsiveness alone will not suffice to protect or promote the public interest.…”