Rethinking Democratic Accountability. By Robert D. Behn. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2001. 317p. $41.95 cloth, $16.95 paper

Peter Kobrak

American Political Science Review, 2002, vol. 96, issue 2, 417-418

Abstract: Everybody seems to talk about accountability but no one ever does anything about it, Robert Behn argues in this thought-provoking book. This is scarcely due to a lack of enough overseers. Behn rattles off the innumerable “accountability holders”—including the GAO, lawyers, journalists, and inspectors general—who dish it out while the wretched public administrators take it. These accountability adversaries exclusively pursue either accountability for finances or accountability for fairness, doling out punishments where rules are inadequately met and feeling no obligation to consider those performance considerations that may have driven managerial choices. Public managers may be confronted by an “accountability dilemma” in pondering the trade-offs between finances and fairness and performance, but that is not the accountability holder's problem.

Date: 2002
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