Government Accountability Compared with Accountability in the Private Sectors

Abstract

In several important respects, the processes by which governments are held accountable are unique to the government sector. For instance, certain key government accountability mechanisms, such as the legislature, policy dialogue or freedom of information, have no direct equivalent in the non-government sectors. The distinction between public and private law marks out a significant difference in the way that the courts handle legal claims against government and private institutions. However, many other aspects of government accountability, such as elections, audit and media scrutiny have equivalents or close parallels in the nongovernment sectors. Some aspects of the law apply equally to all sectors. Moreover, the general rationale underlying accountability, the need to hold the powerful to account, is common across all sectors. So too are some of the problems to which accountability gives rise, for instance the difficulty of allocating responsibility and accountability within large organisations (Chapter 6). This chapter compares accountability within the three main sectors — public, commercial and non-profit — in order to identify the main differences and similarities.