Accountability and the Promise of Performance: In Search of the Mechanisms

Abstract In an effort to determine the basis for the assumed relationship between accountabilityand performance that pervades much of contemporary administrative reform efforts, this paper applies a "social mechanisms" approach to elaborate the factors that might be involved in account giving and various forms of administrative performance. This searchfor mechanisms indicates that the relationship is paradoxical and either spurious or so contingent as to raise questions regarding administrative reforms based on it. Various theoretical approaches for dealing with the relationship are considered.