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4 - Who Should Be Held Accountable?

from Part II - Benchmark of Accountability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2020

Ellen Rock
Affiliation:
University of Technology, Sydney
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Summary

This chapter looks at the various choices that must be made in deciding who should be held accountable pursuant to an accountability mechanism. Some of the key difficulties discussed include the sheer size and complexity of modern government, particularly in a federal system; that government operations are increasingly performed via co-operation between different entities and individuals, making it difficult to pinpoint a ‘wrongdoer’; the increasing trend of privatisation and outsourcing; and underlying philosophical questions about our conception of government, including whether it should be treated as a corporate entity or a collection of individuals. Once those difficulties have been confronted, it is then necessary to make choices about what approach best suits the selected rationale(s) for accountability. For instance, the desert rationale might favour holding individual wrongdoers directly accountable, whereas the redress rationale might favour holding the government accountable as an entity on the basis that it is in a better position to provide an appropriate remedy.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Who Should Be Held Accountable?
  • Ellen Rock, University of Technology, Sydney
  • Book: Measuring Accountability in Public Governance Regimes
  • Online publication: 28 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886154.008
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  • Who Should Be Held Accountable?
  • Ellen Rock, University of Technology, Sydney
  • Book: Measuring Accountability in Public Governance Regimes
  • Online publication: 28 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886154.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Who Should Be Held Accountable?
  • Ellen Rock, University of Technology, Sydney
  • Book: Measuring Accountability in Public Governance Regimes
  • Online publication: 28 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108886154.008
Available formats
×