Enabling Public Accountability

Abstract

Action in the public domain rests upon public consent, for without consent collective choice is deprived of legitimate authority. The learning society requires a continuous and continuing relationship of accountability within the polity. The management task within the public domain is to enable an account to be made to the public about performance, but also to enable the variety of interests within the public to engage in discourse about what counts as performance in the pursuit of public policy. The management of public accountability is thus central to the vitality of the public domain ensuring relations of control and consent (‘holding to account’) and also of discourse within the polity (‘the giving of accounts’).