The globalization of information--satellite TV, internet, phone and fax--serve to enhance citizens' awareness of their rights, obligations, options and alternatives and strengthens demands for greater accountability from the public sector. However, the power of accountability is significantly reduced if citizens are unable to measure their government's performance in a meaningful way, which is precisely the topic of this timely book. The abstract concept of 'government performance' can only be an effective tool in public debate when there are concrete statistics measuring performance and...

Accountability of government to citizens--the idea that the public sector must answer to the people for its performance--is the foundation for good governance. Under good governance, public expenditures are allocated to maximize welfare, revenues are collected efficiently, and the public at large has access to a number of public services including water and sanitation, infrastructure, education and health. Unfortunately in many developing countries, the people suffer the results of dysfunctional governance systems that fail to provide even minimal levels of vital public services. This happens...

For various reasons--whether philosophical, political, humanitarian, or by institutional mandate--people are concerned for the well being of the most vulnerable groups in society: women, the poor, and the elderly. Some would even measure the value of a political system by how well it cares for the least of its members. Related to this is the orientation of government toward the public more generally and the extent that it listens and responds to its citizens. More specifically, it is the rules and norms--the institutional framework--of government through which it takes into account the...