Accountable Management in British Central Government: Some Reflections on the Official Record

The paper begins by briefly outlining the development of accountable management and its application to British central government. A framework is then proposed for the analysis of recent Government initiatives. Our review of official documentation centres on budgetary control systems, performance indicators and policy evaluation. Conclusions point to the evolutionary character of developments and their application to differentiated contexts. Yet underlying the progress that has so far been made there remains a potentially dysfunctional tension between the demands of the political process and those of the management process.