Toward a Framework for Comparing Accountability Regimes in Healthcare

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The debate on accountability within the public sector has been especially lively over the past decade. Significant progress has been made in developing conceptual frameworks and typologies for characterizing different features and functions of accountability. At the same time, however, there has been a lack of sector-specific adjustment of such frameworks. In this chapter we present a framework for analyzing accountability within healthcare. The chapter makes use of the concept of “accountability regime” to signify the combination of different accountability forms, directions, and functions in operation at any given point in time. We show that reforms can introduce new forms of accountability, change existing accountability relations, or change the relative importance of different accountability forms. They may also change the dominant direction and shift the balance between different functions of accountability. We further suggest that developments in accountability regimes are best analyzed with a combination of top-down and bottom-up perspectives and that there is a need to develop research strategies to support this aim.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Oxford Handbook of Governance and Public Management for Social Policy
EditorsKaren J. Baehler
Place of PublicationNew York
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication date2023
Pages737–C50.P94
Chapter50
ISBN (Print)9780190916329
ISBN (Electronic)9780190916350
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023
SeriesOxford Handbooks

ID: 348147006