Are traditional research designs responsive?

Addresses the problem of designing empirical studies of accountability of public agencies and suggests a new approach. Typically an objective is to determine the extent to which an agency is responsive to the needs of the public it is intended to serve. Traditional designs are frequently not useful for studying accountability because of problems posed by four issues: (1) appropriate unit of analysis, (2) interrelationships among alternative outcomes, (3) complexity of interventions, and (4) assessment of voluntary efforts. Using traditional designs from the field of experimental psychology creates insurmountable problems. One solution has been to make incremental modifications and compromises so that studies provide empirical information, even if somewhat flawed. A second solution is to develop an entirely new logic for investigating the subject of accountability. A starting point could be the codification of existing research designs in political science research, because ultimately accountability concerns the relationship between government and citizen.