Significance of Accountability under the New Approach to Public Governance

Abstract

Introduction The public accountability of public governance1 has been a major concern in all societies and civilizations, although there are variations in the criteria, means, and agents of such accountability based on the nature of the polity ranging from traditional to modern, conservative to liberal, capitalist to socialist. Even the connotations of accountability often differ among societies depending on their unique sociohistorical formations, ideological inclinations, and cultural beliefs (see Haque, 1994). The liberal notion of accountability that emerged in advanced capitalist nations could be inconceivable in traditional India, imperial Japan, or communist China. However, during the post-colonial period, most Asian, African, and Latin American countries began to adopt the ideas, principles, and institutions of accountability representing the liberal democratic mode of governance found in advanced capitalist nations (Haque, 1994). In other words, despite the previous cross-national diversity in the modes of public governance and public accountability, the post-colonial period witnessed the convergence, at least in appearance, of these varying patterns of accountability into a common liberaldemocratic model. One of the most crucial features of this liberal-democratic framework is the existence of certain basic mechanisms of accountability such as legislative committee, parliamentary debate, public hearing, ministerial control, ombudsman, and media scrutiny. Despite the previous critique of these liberal-democratic means of public accountability — especially with regard to their ineffectiveness caused by overcentralized bureaucracy, complex state apparatus, incapable political leaders, and uninformed public (O’Loughlin, 1990) — such democratic means have been quite useful to ensure government accountability in terms of delivering goods and services, addressing public needs and demands, maintaining neutrality and representation, ascertaining citizens’ entitlements, and guaranteeing equality and justice. However, in recent years, there has emerged a unique set of challenges to