Summary
Contents
Subject index
This major international handbook provides a complete review and guide to past and present knowledge in this essential field of inquiry. Assembling an outstanding team of scholars from around the world, it comprehensively explores the current state of the art in academic thinking and the current structures and processes for the administration of public policy following this period of rapid transformation and change.
Accountability
Introduction
Accountability has always been a central concern of both the study and the practice of public administration. This key concept has also been elusive and controversial, with theoretical debates under way almost constantly. In the realm of practice, critics have seldom been hard pressed to find fault with existing accountability arrangements and procedures, regardless of the type of political and bureaucratic system under examination. Because accountability is such a prized political and administrative value, the usual assumption has been that there can never be too much of it. Also, there has been a reluctance to acknowledge that accountability must at times adjust to, compromise with and even yield to other important political and administrative values, such as representation, responsiveness, efficiency, equity and legitimacy.
While controversy ...
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