Public Accountability in Collaborative Governance: Lessons from Korean Community Centers

Abstract

Even the best governance and public administration systems can fail because of lack of accountability. This paper reviews the factors likely to affect the accountability of the collaborative governance system and suggests concrete measures to ensure accountability. As an empirical case of collaborative governance, 300 Korean community centers were sampled by region and by size. Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted to identify the determinant factors for the accountability of collaborative governance. This analysis found the following factors to be the most important in ensuring accountability in a collaborative governance system: clarity of laws and regulations, representativeness of participants, transparency and democracy in the decision-making process, and performance management and incentive systems. The analysis also found that it is necessary to conceive different performance management and incentive systems for public and civil groups.