Public Administration And Accountability

4058 Words17 Pages
Public Administration and Accountability There seems to be a paradox in the development of the democratic welfare state. As the state grows more and more powerful in order to serve the people, more and more people feel to have been pushed into the background by the growing powers of the social service sate. As public administration machinery expands and becomes more complex, the need for holding it properly accountable is more acutely felt. In a democratic government, the assumption is that the civil servants work in the government for the people. Therefore, the problem of locating accountability becomes acute because of the nature of the job performed and exercised by the public officials. Administrative accountability means making the civil servants answerable for their actions. Administrative accountability has to be understood in relation to making of public policies and their implementation. It means accountability of those administrators who in some ways or the other contribute to the decision making process. And this accountability is to the political system as a whole. In general, the public officials are found to be guilty of non-feasance, malfeasance and overfeasance. -Nonfeasance means that civil servants have not done what law or custom requires them to do owing to laziness, ignorance or want of care for their charges or corrupt influence. -Malfeasance means that a duty is carried out with waste and damage because of ignorance, negligence and technical incompetence. -Overfeasance occurs when a duty is undertaken beyond what law and custom oblige empower---it may occur out of dictatorial temper, vanity or genuine public spirited zeal. The public officials must be held accountable for any of these three activities. The concept of administrative accountability has multiple dimensions. 1. Political accountability: The
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