What Makes Public Accounts Committees Work? A Comparative Analysis
Author(s)
Pelizzo, Riccardo
Stapenhurst, Rick
Sahgal, Vinod
Woodley, William
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2006
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This article investigates whether and under what conditions Public Accounts Committees (PACs) are able to scrutinize government accounts. In doing so, we analyze survey data from 51 Commonwealth countries collected by the World Bank Institute in 2002. We find that the relationship between the formal powers of the PACs and their successful performance is conditional. Specifically, we argue that the success of PACs depend on the behavior of committee members, on the availability of independent sources of information, and on the media's interest in scrutinizing government accounts.This article investigates whether and under what conditions Public Accounts Committees (PACs) are able to scrutinize government accounts. In doing so, we analyze survey data from 51 Commonwealth countries collected by the World Bank Institute in 2002. We find that the relationship between the formal powers of the PACs and their successful performance is conditional. Specifically, we argue that the success of PACs depend on the behavior of committee members, on the availability of independent sources of information, and on the media's interest in scrutinizing government accounts.
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Journal Title
Politics & Policy
Volume
34
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2006 The Policy Studies Organization. Published by Wiley-Blackwell. Self-archiving of manuscripts in institutional repositories is not yet supported by The Policy Studies Organization. Please refer to the journal link for access to the definitive, published version or contact the author for more information.
Subject
Policy and Administration not elsewhere classified
Policy and Administration
Political Science