IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aka/soceco/v25y2003i2p225-234.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Responsibility Dilemmas in Public Service

Author

Listed:
  • Gyula Gulyás

    (BUESPA, Department of Public Service, H-1093 Budapest, Fővám tér 8, Hungary)

Abstract

The article is based on Aaron Wildavsky's famous model of culture to interpret responsibility. In this model (1) fatalism leads to universal irresponsibility; (2) an individualistic culture values personal responsibility; (3) hierarchical cultures produce hierarchical responsibility; and (4) egalitarian culture generates collective responsibility. The author argues that the only acceptable form of responsibility is the personal one. A higher autonomy of public servants implies a greater degree of accountability and also responsibility. This new type of personal responsibility does not separate public servants into two categories: politicians with responsibility and bureaucrats without it. Personal responsibility presupposes persons who are able to make decisions and can find the balance between their self-interest and a public interest.

Suggested Citation

  • Gyula Gulyás, 2003. "Responsibility Dilemmas in Public Service," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 25(2), pages 225-234, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:aka:soceco:v:25:y:2003:i:2:p:225-234
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://akademiai.com/content/g70637u032vx1qj4/fulltext.pdf
    Download Restriction: subscription
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    social institutions; responsibility models;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aka:soceco:v:25:y:2003:i:2:p:225-234. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kriston, Orsolya (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://akademiai.hu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.