ABSTRACT
Public administration discourse bestows an honored place to the theory and practice of accountability. During much of the twentieth century the focus was on how to reconcile Big Government with democratic accountability. The size and complexity of government put considerable stress on the links of the traditional chain of accountability as power over public resources was largely transferred to the hands of bureaucrats. Efforts to maintain public accountability focused largely on refining hierarchic bureaucratic control structures by way of legislation, administrative directives, and internal standard operating procedures.
