Affiliation:
1. Durham University Business School Durham UK
Abstract
AbstractLegislatures face difficult challenges holding modern bureaucratic democracies to account due to the scale, complexity, and diverse impacts on citizens' lives. One way that democracies bridge the gap between the legislature and executive is through financial accounts of government departments. This paper examines whether financial accounts are trusted by MPs in the UK Parliament for purposes of transparency in the service of accountability. The article does this through examination of two linked inquiries by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee at the UK House of Commons. The article argues that transparency, accountability, and trust are involved in a rhizomatic relationship where each is related to the other without a hierarchy between them. The article uses a framework proposed by Oomsels and Bouckeart to show the accounts are not trusted, which has implications both for the accounts as a tool of accountability and for creating transparency.
Subject
Public Administration,Sociology and Political Science
Reference124 articles.
1. Doing qualitative field research in management accounting: Positioning data to contribute to theory;Ahrens T.;Accounting, Organizations and Society,2006
2. Accrual accounting valuations and accountability in government: a potentially pernicious union;Aiken M.;Australian Journal of Public Administration,1995
3. Paths to trust: Explaining citizens' trust to experts and evidence‐informed policymaking during the COVID‐19 pandemic
4. Other minds;Austin J.L.;Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes,1946
5. Reform and consolidation: a new perspective on departmental select committees;Aylett P.;Parliamentary Affairs,2019