ABSTRACT
The American policy process entrusts career administrators with an extraordinary responsibility for the implementation of public policy. Accountability emphasizes the dependence of administrators on external actors, be they legislators, executives, judges, the press, or the citizenry, while the term responsibility calls attention to the considerable discretion that administrators have in the policy implementation process. The classical model of political accountability makes career administrators subordinate to the hierarchy of authority within the executive branch of government. Legislative accountability runs close to the heart of the American system of democratic governance. The legislative-centered model of administrative accountability, like its executive-centered counterpart, is very difficult to carry out in practice. One way of creating administrative accountability in the implementation process is to rely on policy coordination and control. The most common mechanism of organizational control is exercised through the budget process. Most jurisdictions rely on a centralized organizational structure to maintain accountability in the policy implementation process.
