Holding Power to Account: Accountability in Modern Democracies PDF
Preview Holding Power to Account: Accountability in Modern Democracies
Holding Power to Account Also by Richard Mulgan ARISTOTLE'S POLITICAL THEORY DEMOCRACY AND POWER IN NEW ZEALAND MAORI PAKEHA AND DEMOCRACY POLITICS IN NEW ZEALAND Holding Power to Account Accountability in Modern Democracies Richard Mulgan Graduate Program in Public Policy, Australian National University © Richard Mulgan 2003 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-333-98768-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London wn 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2003 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6X5 and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of 5t. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-43141-0 ISBN 978-1-4039-4383-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403943835 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mulgan, R. G. Holding power to account: accountability in modern democracies I Richard Mulgan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-43141-0 1. Democracy. 2. Representative government and representation. 3. Responsibility. I. Title JC423.M783 2003 321.8-dc21 2003051407 10 9 876 5 4 3 2 1 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 Transferred to digital printing 2005 For Aurelia Contents List of Tables viii fu~ ~ 1 Issues of Accountability 1 2 Government Accountability: Political Mechanisms 36 3 Government Accountability: Audit, Judicial Review and Other Mechanisms 75 4 Government Accountability Compared with Accountability in the Private Sectors 115 5 Public Sector Accountability and New Public Management Reforms 151 6 Locating Accountability: One or Many? 188 7 Accountability and its Limits 226 References 241 Index 250 vii List of Tables 3.1 Mechanisms of government accountability 109 4.1 Government accountability compared with accountability in the non-government sectors 149 6.1 Single and multiple accountability 224 viii Preface The term 'accountability' has leapt to prominence in the last two decades, becoming identified with one of the core values of democratic governance in the English-speaking world. However, unlike other core democratic values, such as freedom, justice and equality, accountability has not yet had time to accumulate a substantial tradition of academic analysis. Many authors have been writing about accountability in a variety of contexts, political, legal and commercial, but there has been little agreement, or even common ground of disagreement, over the general nature of accountability or its various mechanisms. This book attempts an overview of accountability, concentrating on the public sector though also discussing accountability in the commercial and non-profit private sectors. It aims to synthesise current thinking about accountability within a coherent and workable framework, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of different accountability regimes, and to identify the practical and desirable limits to accountability. The scope is broad, covering a range of countries and constitutional systems, and inevitably involves a high level of generalisation. Better understanding of the basic principles and progress towards a common framework of analYSiS, it is hoped, will compensate for the lack of detail. References are given to the main secondary authorities but, in the interests of an uncluttered text, online primary materials such as legislation and official documents are left unsourced on the assumption that readers can readily find their way to the relevant websites. This book was written while I have been a member of the Public Policy Program at the Australian National University and I am grateful to successive Program Directors, Francis Castles and Glenn Withers, for their unfashionably collegial leadership and for not holding me too much to account. lowe an inestimable debt to the international network of learned scholars who have analysed various aspects of accountability and whose writings are referred to in the text and bibliography. In addition, I must thank a number of friends and colleagues who have helped me at particular points: Peter Aucoin, Stephen Bottomley, John Braithwaite, Anna Cook, Carol Harlow, Janet McLean, Beryl Radin, Colin Scott and John Uhr. They have saved me from significant error, ix Preface x while I retain responsibility (and accountability) for remaining deficien cies. As ever, my wife Aurelia has been a constant loving support throughout. Richard Mulgan Canberra March 2003
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