Accountability

One of the most difficult challenges faced by reformers is establishing accountability for the observable outcomes of public policies and programs. (There are even sometimes significant disagreements about how to measure those outcomes.) If a program has failed, is it the fault of the bureaucracy, or was the program the Congress and the president created fundamentally flawed to begin with? Perhaps the nature of the problem changed so drastically that the original program or policy is no longer effective — maybe no one is responsible. Even if the responsibility for a program’s failure can be attributed to a particular department or agency, who within that department or agency should be held accountable? Should it be a departmental secretary? An under secretary? Or are the rank-and-file employees at the department or agency to blame?

While Harry Truman was famous for declaring that the “buck” stopped at his desk, not all presidents have been so willing to accept ultimate accountability for the actions of the bureaucracy. On the contrary, presidents before and after Truman, as well as members of Congress, have regularly blamed the bureaucracy for policy failures. Congressional committees frequently compel department and agency heads to appear before them to explain why this or that program has not succeeded. Although popular among politicians, bureaucracy-bashing is generally counter-productive and does little to actually improve government administration.¹⁵