Study On E-government Deepening Administrative Accountability

As the result of the construction of contemporary responsible government, administrative accountability kept pace with western government reform which started in the 1980s. Having been affected by the movement of new public management, the importance of administrative accountability has increased dramatically. From the meaning to the pattern, different scholars adapt different methods to study administrative accountability, which promote administrative accountability to transform from traditional paradigm to modern paradigm. Comparing with western countries, the study of administrative accountability started a little latter in our country. Although Hong Kong carried out the institution of official accountability on July 1st 2002, the sign of the beginning when administrative accountability entered political and administrative field in our country is that two ministers handed in their resignations because of SARS affair in April of 2003. Subsequently, there were also a series of accidents such as the eruption of oil well in Chongqing, the trample accident in Beijing, the fatal fire of Jilin commercial building in Jilin and so on which draw extensive social attentions about administrative accountability. However, in the face of promoting administrative accountability to transform from emergency mechanism to normal accountability institution, the construction of administrative accountability in our country is encountering lots of problems such as lack of accountability culture, confusion of different responsibilities, obstruction of information, lack of supervision and formal law and so on. These problems involve not only about traditional management pattern, but also the contradiction of administrative management system, both of which keep administrative accountability from furthering development. Therefore, it is crucial to figure out how to promote administrative accountability to develop institutionally and normally.This paper tries to analyze administrative accountability from the view of E-government affairs. On the basis of defining the role e-government plays in the construction of administrative accountability, e-government which possesses both value and technical platform provides administrative accountability with dynamic and support. This attempt accords with government informationzation and the path of our government reform. With the help of technical restriction, e-government strengthens necessary conditions of accountability construction, makes up for limitations of institution and provides accountability with one research path.In generally, this paper has three parts.â… The summarization of administrative accountabilityThis part includes its meaning, elements of accountability system and its class and causes of accountability construction in our country. It answers what is administrative accountability and explains the necessary of administrative accountability. Firstly, if we want to understand administrative, we should understand responsibility primarily. Then, we could define the character and the content of administrative responsibility to confirm the scope of administrative accountability. On the basis of these, we could comprehend administrative accountability generally. Secondly, with the help of achievements in western scholars, elements and classes of administrative accountability have been summarized from both vertical level and horizontal level. In vertical level, administrative accountability system includes accountability subject, accountability object, accountability scope and accountability process, all of which are bases of administrative accountability. Without defines of these elements, it is nonsense to talk about administrative accountability. In horizontal level, mainly referring to the achievement of Romzek, administrative accountability is classified by its content and its running mechanism. Therefore, administrative accountability include hierarchical accountability, professional accountability, legal accountability and political accountability. Thirdly, it is about the necessary of the construction of administrative accountability. The theoretics such as social contract, agency by agreement and good governrance all provide administrative accountability with stable theory foundation. Both government reform and public crisis affairs also urge administrative accountability to develop.â…¡The foundation of E-government deepen administrative accountabilityAdministrative accountability runs through the whole process of administrative decision, administrative executing and administrative result. The effect of accountability depends on whether its institution and its process are good or not. However, because of different political, economic and culture conditions in different countries and areas, the accountability institution and its process must have different forms. But no matter how it has changed, there must be some mutual premises such as accountability culture, responsibility partition, information publicity, supervision mechanism and citizen involvement. All of them ensure administrative accountability to execute smoothly. The values of E-government focus on its functions that strengthen preconditions of accountability in the process of construction. First, the service idea of customer-orientation which is contained in E-government strengthen government responsible consciousness. Second, requirements of government online promote government to change its function to define responsibilities clearly. Third, window effects of government website promote information to spread extensively to improve government responsiveness. Four, process improvement and process reorganization form a new supervision platform to consolidate accountability control mechanism. Five, the cyberspace which is open and multivariate models new public opinion space to promote social accountability.â…¢The strategies of E-government deepen administrative accountabilityComparing with traditional government responsibility institution, administrative accountability in our country is going through institution change gradually. In this process, it reflects the character of path dependence. Therefore, administrative accountability must rely on supports of internal and external conditions to display its reform effects. As a whole, E-government acts as this part to promote accountability to develop. As a technical support, E-government reduces the executive cost of administrative accountability in virtue of its character and technical platform. To be more specific, E-government acts as the culturist of accountability subject, the provider of accountability information, the supervisor of accountability operation and the protector of accountability result. On this basis, there are some advises to deepen administrative accountability through E-government. First, by virtue of E-government technical platform, try to establish the administrative accountability information system. Second, by virtue of the intercommunion of E-government, explore new model of social accountability. Third, exert E-government's revolutionary potentials to enhance the government foundation of administrative accountability. Four, as a part of administrative accountability, improve construction effects of E-government to develop administrative accountability. On the basis of E-government construction, we could relief problems which hinder the development of administrative accountability to promote administrative accountability to further development in the orientation of institutionalization, routinization and standardization.