Information and Communication Technology and Accountability of Street Level Bureaucrats from Perspective of Behavioral Public Administration:A Theoretical Review and Modeling
Street level bureaucrats with discretion widely intervene in public affairs,thereby they should be accountable.However due to the specificity of street level environment,there has been a long-standing dilemma of accountability.The information and communication technology(ICT)in digital era was given high expectation,but the application of ICT sparked a debate on"curtailment-enablement"street bureaucrats'discretion,while unfocused on accountability of street level bureaucrats.We first review Lipsky's definition of accountability of street level bureaucrats.The intergroup relation-ship and behavioral pattern approaches of which require us to distinguishing accountability forums and focusing on the perceptions and behaviors of street level bureaucrats.Then we summarize the objective accountability and felt accountabili-ty by different subjects from two dimensions,i.e.factual possibility and value appropriateness dimensions.Secondly,based on the review of literature at three levels:macro technical and institutional perspectives,meso organizational and ICT types,and micro"bureaucrat-citizen"perception of accountability and copying/accountability behaviors,an analytical model accountability of street bureaucrats in digital era was constructed from the perspective of behavioral public administration.Finally,future research prospects are presented to solidify the micro foundation of accountability of street bureaucrats in digital era.
Information and communication technologyStreet level bureaucratsAccountabilityFelt accountabilityBehav-ioral public administration
万方数据
维普
