14 March 2006
Accountability must be questioned as an effective way to improve governance, Professor Melvin Dubnick, one of the world's leading authorities on public administration and accountability will tell a public lecture tomorrow.
Hosted by Monash University's Governance Research Unit, the lecture, Pathologies of Governance Reform: Promises, Pervasions and Perversions in the Age of Accountability, questions the effectiveness of accountability systems.
Professor Dubnick says accountability promises but does not guarantee justice, ethics, democracy and performance.
"The concept of accountability is manifest in almost every arena of human activity associated with governance, whether we are dealing with policy arenas, economic sectors, government regimes or the phenomenon of globalisation," Professor Dubnick says.
"Rhetorically it has become the universal standard for good governance and the driving motivation behind major reform movements from those seeking truth and reconciliation, more ethical behaviour, greater transparency and more effective and efficient government. But those accountability systems being advocated just don't deliver on these promises. If anything they might make it more difficult to achieve any of those goals.
"Accountability systems are based on promises, and therefore imply that policy instruments exist to govern action but this is not the case," he said. "Accountability systems rely on people. Therefore they can work by calling for the energy, motivation, commitment, knowledge and skill of people but this does not ensure ethical behaviour."
Professor Dubnick was recently appointed Professor of Political Science and Director of the Master of Public Administration Program at the University of New Hampshire. He is the co-author of many textbooks on public policy analysis, public administration, and American government.
What:
Pathologies of Governance Reform: Promises, Pervasions and Perversions in the Age of Accountability - public lecture
When: 7 for 7:30 am to 9 am, Wednesday, 15 March 2006
Where: Naval and Military Club, 27 Lt Collins Street, Melbourne
For more information contact Ms Penny Fannin, Media Communications, on +613 9905 5828 or 0417 125 700.
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