Role of Managerial and Political Accountability in Improving Performance of Local Governments

Abstract

The belief that governments should be accountable for their actions has brought about many managerial reforms in the form of new public management. However, there are assertions that these performance-oriented managerial reforms weaken the role of political accountability. In this study, by using regression discontinuity design to examine the impact of the South Korean government’s regulatory reform, we explored the relationship between multiple accountability and performance in the public sector. Our findings are as follows: First, we see that managerial accountability systems clearly lead to performance improvement in local governments with poor performance. Second, the impact of managerial accountability on performance depends on political accountability. It means that political accountability should be considered more as a complement, than a substitute.