| Government Accountability and Redesign
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Governing with accountability
Most citizens want state and local government to do important work well, and surveys show that Minnesotans in particular are willing to invest more when government returns good value for the public dollar. But there’s mounting evidence that despite our reputation for good government, Minnesota has slipped on this score. Although most of us don’t use the word “accountability” when we talk about whether our government works, we do hold it accountable for many of the public outcomes we care most about – quality education, good jobs, clean air and water, safe and reliable infrastructure, affordable health care and accessible public spaces.
Transforming government toward sustained improvement
Minnesota has a strong “good government” culture and a reform-oriented tradition upon which to build new approaches. But even this strong base has a weakness. From his analysis of innovative organizations in Minnesota, professor and author Paul Light concludes that innovators often fail to work on permanently changing bureaucracies and agencies, and toward changing how they operate to sustain innovation. This and other research leads us to believe that attention needs to be focused on three fundamental areas in order to move from individual acts of innovation to a sustained focus on transforming state and local government. These are:
- Finding and hiring the right people necessary to bring about transformation.
- Identifying and incorporating the structural systems that support transformation.
- Restoring faith in government by better engaging the public and encouraging their collaboration with political leaders and civil servants.
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