POLITICAL PROBLEMS OF ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITY AND REFORM

In: Australian journal of public administration, Band 38, Heft 4, S. 347-360

Abstract

This paper focusses on two issues: the problem of reforming administration so that the bureaucracy in its political decision‐making is more firmly responsible to the elected representatives of the people and more responsive to community needs and values, and the interlocking problem of the politics of the reform process itself. Where a government announces its intention to undertake a reform program, its purposes are usually explained in terms of the need for greater efficiency. The process of reform, apart from the stress on efficiency, is usually described in value‐neutral terms. The program or the enquiry, it is claimed, will result in the job being done better or more quickly or more cheaply. However, if one looks more closely at the reasons for the establishment of such programs and enquiries, it is clear that underlying the urge to change the administration, there is a dissatisfaction not so much with the way in which decisions are carried out, as with the decisions themselves. The "hidden agenda" of most reforms is to ensure that different decisions are taken and different outcomes in the community result.