Client Choice and Bureaucratic Accountability: Possibilities for Responsiveness in a Social Welfare Bureaucracy

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Abstract
In a period of increasing concern about the effectiveness and the cost of social welfare services, this paper discusses two strategies which might be thought to improve the relationship between the expected and the actual outcome of encounters with social service bureaucracies. They are client choice and bureaucratic accounting procedures. The discussion is based on data from a research project in the field of child welfare. The discussion about choice illustrates the issues of the conditions necessary for authentic choice, the limits of choice, and the corruptibility of choice. The discussion of accountability includes a description of the factors which thwart effective accounting and some suggestions for improving the process.