Discipline and Democratize: Patterns of Bureaucratic Accountability in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Attempts to “regulate” civil service personnel — to hold bureaucrats accountable, whether to politicians, the people, professional standards or the rule of law — are as old as the politician-bureaucrat relationship itself. Politicians and citizens throughout Southeast Asia are calling for greater bureaucratic accountability in a variety of country settings: one-party states and emerging democracies, and in countries with capable as well as rudimentary bureaucracies. This paper presents an analytical framework that unpacks the idioms used in common accountability reforms applied in Southeast Asian countries into four categories — “rules,” “watchdogs,” “culture,” and “re-engineering” — and relates reform selection and implementation to country governance characteristics. The framework is used to identify reform opportunities, constraints and likely trajectories in the diverse Southeast Asian context.

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