ABSTRACT
Advanced performance-measurement regimes-core features of the “new public management” (NPM) in several countries-are supposed to increase the quality and degree of accountability to citizens and their elected representatives. According to NPM theory and many official pronouncements, sophisticated systems of performance measurement considerably enhance public accountability. It seems obvious that more information-especially information about outputs and outcomes rather than inputs and internal organizational processes-will sharpen the sense of responsibility of those service providers who are being measured and will simultaneously empower those who hold them to account.
