Leadership and Accountability

This July 2006 Roundtable featured a conversation with John Rohr, Professor, Center for Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and Bradford Huther, President and CEO of the International Intellectual Property Institute and Retired Member, Senior Executive Service.

In a linear, bureaucratic world, accountability in the public service should be readily defined—assigned to public actors with one level reporting to, and accountable to, the next higher level. In reality, in a constitutional republic of shared and fragmented power with both government and non-governmental actors, the question of accountability is more complex. Public administrators working in a bureaucratic framework clearly answer directly to their managers/executives and the political agency heads. But does that answer the question of accountability? This Roundtable explored the question of whom leaders in the public service are accountable to and how they acquire their normative foundation for ethics and accountability.