Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Based on the readings, what could Tennessee do to make political and bureaucratic functionaries more accountable?
Public Administration, but virtue of its role in society, must be held accountable for corrupt and unethical actions. Public administration plays both a vital and integral role within the overall political climate of America and as such, must be held to a high standard. Many voters look to public officials as representatives of their communities and expect them to act responsibility while upholding the values of their constituency. Unfortunately, as recent events in Tennessee have shown, political stakeholders often put their own interest ahead of those who they have sworn to help. As a result, more action should be taken to hold political officials who stray from their mandate to be more accountable.
To begin, bureaucratic accountability is defined as the principle of political accountability that is applied to control bureaucratic power. Therefore, the first element to hold public officials more accountable is eliminating conflicts of interest that could undermine their overall objectivity when making critical decisions about bureaucratic power. A very contentious debate currently underway in America is the idea of public funding of elections for officials. Currently large political stakeholders and bureaucratic organizations have higher access to political officials due to large donations, political contributions, and other arrangements that provide benefits to the official. In these circumstances, the official’s decision making could be impaired based on this relationship. By having publicly funded elections, this could potential hamper some of the conflicts of interest that can arise through large political donations from various bureaucratic stakeholders (Rich, 2015).
Another element...…of accountability through proper channels of oversight (Wilson, 2016).
In conclusion, the failures of public administration were brought to the forefront with the scandals of Operation Rocky Top and Operation Tennessee Waltz. Both of which uncovered the extreme lack of oversight and the importance of accountability with the public offices of Tennessee. In order curtail these errors in judgement from occurring in the future, the voter base must first be properly engaged. Here, voters should consistently monitor behavior while also provided real-time feedback. In addition, a culture of whistleblowing must be promoted both within and without all government agencies of Tennessee. Finally, as much as possible, conflicts of interest must be eliminated. Through these initiatives’ government officials will be in a better position to behave honorably while also representing their communities in an ethical fashion.…
References
1. Rich, E., & Moberg, J. (2015). Beyond governments: Making collective governance work - lessons from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. New York, NY: Greenleaf Publishing
2. Westenberg, E., & Sayne A. (2018). Beneficial ownership screening: Practical measures to reduce corruption risks in extractives licensing. Natural Resource Governance Institute. Retrieved from https://resourcegovernance.org/analysis-tools/publications/beneficial-ownership-screening-practicalmeasures-reduce-corruption
3. Wilson, C., & de Lanerolle, I. (2016) Test it and they might come: Improving the uptake of digital tools in transparency and accountability initiatives. IDS Bulletin, 47(1), 113–126. Retrieved from http://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/idsbo/article/view/40
" Over two-thirds of Haitians depend on agriculture (small subsistence farms), which is vulnerable to violent storms and erosion (deforestation). Haiti struggles economically due to "higher inflation than similar low-income countries, a lack of investment, and a severe trade deficit," the CIA reports. Per capital annual income in Haiti is estimated at $1,800. Even the labor force (3.6 million workers) is shaky, as "more than two-thirds" of Haiti's workers have
Introduction Corruption weakens the strength of a democracy, undermining public trust, and leading to a downward spiral of apathy and discontent. Low voter participation itself becomes a major factor perpetuating the possibility of corruption. A feeling of powerlessness pervades even the most robust of the world’s democracies. If democratic governments are to be responsive to the people they serve, corruption needs to be uprooted whenever it manifests. Reforming corruption and reducing
Corruption Anti-Corruption No one is immune from the power of corruption. Of course there are orders of magnitude and people can be corrupted in little ways that do not seem to matter, but many times the people that are corrupted are the very ones who are supposed to be manning the public trust. The very people citizens hope are the most incorruptible are, unfortunately, the most susceptible. Lord Acton said that "Power
Corruption The relationship between corruption and democracy as a political institution has been at the core of studies and researches for political science since its beginnings. The development made in the filed of Political Science along the years has influenced the way scientists perceived and analyzed the corruption phenomenon. Charles H. Blake nad Stephen D. Morris have gathered under the all embracing title Corruption and Democracy in Latin America, the works
This because, various corporate interests will often engage in unethical behavior through the actions that executives are taking with regards to: the law and the politicians they are supporting. As a result, the U.S. has to address the interconnected relationship of these two entities (which is leading to increased amounts corporate and political corruption). ("Denmark," 2011) ("New Zealand," 2011) In the case of Somalia and Myanmar, the U.S. has far
Corruption in government is considered by nearly every society as a destructive force. Most view corruption as having a negative impact on a nation's commerce and as a source of social injustice. The lack of accountability by those in authority is considered to be a contributing cause of corruption. The lack of accountability is present in governments where the ruling authorities are afforded considerable discretion such as authoritarian style governments