Politicians and public servants are commonly depicted as being in a unilinear power relationship. However, senior officials are subject to accountability relationships with various central government authorities in addition to ministers. Multiple accountabilities can work at cross-purposes and prevent bureaucrats from complying with ministerial directions, however legitimate those directions may be. One aim of recent public management reform has been to do away with some of these accountabilities. But they have only been replaced by others. Multiple accountabilities are an inescapable part of the reality of government.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Barker, Anthony, and Wilson, Graham K. (1997), ‘Whitehall's disobedient servants? Senior officials' potential resistance to ministers in British government departments’, British Journal of Political Science, Vol 27, pp.223-246.
2.
Bogdanor, Vernon (1996), ‘The Scott report’, Public Administration, Vol 74, No 4, pp.593-611.
3.
Borins, Sandford, and Warrington, Edward (1996), ‘The new public administration: global challenges, local solutions’, a report on the second biennial conference of CAPAM (Toronto: CAPAM).
4.
Boston, Jonathan (1992), ‘Assessing the performance of departmental chief executives: perspectives from New Zealand’, Public Administration, Vol 70, No 3, pp.405-428.
5.
Boston, Jonathan, Martin, John, Pallot, June, and Walsh, Pat (1996), Public Management: The New Zealand Model (Melbourne: Oxford University Press).
6.
Cachia Zammit, Ray (1992), ‘Duty or interference? The role of ministers in administration’, Administrative Review, No 1, pp.8-10.
7.
Campbell, Colin (1995), ‘Does reinvention need reinvention? Lessons from truncated managerialism in Britain’, Governance, Vol 8, No 4, pp.479-504.
8.
Commonwealth Secretariat (1994), Current Good Practices and New Developments in Public Service Management: A Profile of the Public Service of Canada (London: Commonwealth Secretariat).
9.
Foster, Christopher (1996), ‘Reflections on the true significance of the Scott report for government accountability’, Public Administration, Vol 74, No 4, pp.567-592.
10.
Foster, Christopher, and Plowden, Francis (1996), The State Under Stress: Can the Hollow State Be Good Government? (Buckingham: Open University Press).
11.
Greer, Patricia (1994), Transforming Central Government: The Next Steps Initiative (Buckingham: Open University Press).
12.
Halligan, John (1991), ‘Career public service and administrative reform in Australia’, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Vol 57, No 3, pp.345-360.
13.
Harrigan, Jane (1995), ‘Jamaica: mature democracy but questionable accountability’, in Healey, John, and Tordoff, William (eds), Votes and Budgets: Comparative Studies in Accountable Governance in the South (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
14.
Hennessy, Peter (1989), Whitehall (New York: Free Press).
15.
Hodgetts, J.E. (1991), ‘Public management: emblem of reform for the Canadian public service’, Optimum, Vol 22, No 1, pp.60-68.
16.
Hughes, Owen E. (1994), Public Management and Administration (London: Macmillan).
17.
Kellner, Peter, and Crowther-Hunt, Lord (1980), The Civil Servants (London: Macdonald).
18.
Kernaghan, Kenneth, and Langford, John (1990), The Responsible Public Servant (Halifax: Institute for Research on Public Policy).
19.
Kernaghan, Kenneth, and Siegel, David (1991), Public Administration in Canada: A Text, 2nd edn (Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson Canada).
20.
Kirkwood, D. (1982), ‘Accountability and the deputy minister’, Optimum, Vol 13, No 2.
21.
Langford, John (1984), ‘Responsibility in the senior public service: marching to several drummers’, Canadian Public Administration, Vol 27, No 4, pp.513-521.
22.
Lewis, Norman (1995), ‘Accountability and the Employment Service Agency’, in Giddings, Philip (ed.), Parliamentary Accountability: A Study of Parliament and Executive Agencies (Basingstoke: Macmillan).
23.
Macdonald, Flora (1980), ‘The minister and the mandarins’, Policy Options, January, pp.29-31.
24.
Marshall, Geoffrey (ed.) (1989), Ministerial Responsibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
25.
Mountfield, Robin (1997), ‘Organisational reform within government: accountability and policy management’, Public Administration and Development, Vol 17, No 1, pp.71-76.
Plowden, William (1994), Ministers and Mandarins (London: Institute for Public Policy Research).
28.
Polidano, Charles (1997), ‘The bureaucrat who fell under a bus: ministerial responsibility, executive agencies, and the Derek Lewis affair in Britain’, IDPM Public Policy and Management Working Paper, No 1 (Manchester: Institute for Development Policy and Management).
29.
Polidano, Charles, and Manning, Nick (1996), Redrawing the Lines: Service Commissions and the Delegation of Personnel Management (London: Commonwealth Secretariat).
30.
Portelli, John (1992), ‘The impossibility of detachment: assessing the politicisation of the Maltese civil service’, Administrative Review, No 1, pp.3-7.
31.
Pyper, Robert (1995), The British Civil Service (Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall).
32.
Rose, Richard (1988), The Postmodern President: The White House Meets the World (Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House).
33.
Rowat, Malcolm D. (1996), ‘Public sector reform in the Latin American and Caribbean region-issues and contrasts’, Public Administration and Development, Vol 16, No 4, pp.397-411.
34.
Royal Commission on Financial Management and Accountability (1979), Final Report (Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada).
35.
Shergold, Peter (1997), ‘The colour purple: perceptions of accountability across the Tasman’, Public Administration and Development, Vol 17, No 3, pp.293-306.
36.
Stone, Bruce (1995), ‘Administrative accountability in the ‘Westminster’ democracies: towards a new conceptual framework’, Governance, Vol 8, No 4, pp.505-526).
37.
Sutherland, S. L. (1991), ‘Responsible government and ministerial responsibility: every reform is its own problem’, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Vol 24, No 1, pp.93-120.
38.
Terry, Francis R. (1997), ‘Getting on in government: political priorities and professional civil servants’, in Farazmand, Ali (ed.), Modern Systems of Government: Exploring the Role of Bureaucrats and Politicians (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage).
39.
Theakston, Kevin (1995), The British Civil Service Since 1945 (Oxford: Blackwell).
40.
Woodhouse, Diana (1994), Ministers and Parliament: Accountability in Theory and Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
41.
Zifcak, Spencer (1994), New Managerialism: Administrative Reform in Whitehall and Canberra (Buckingham: Open University Press).
