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...the existence of link between the citizens and decisions taken by public bureaucracies in their name (Jones and McDermott 2004; Key 1966; Ranney 1954). If citizens attempt to update their views of an incumbent government with information about how well it is running the services and activities under its control, they need accurate information to make judgments about the agents who are supposed to be doing their bidding. Policy makers in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have made considerable investment in performance measurement systems in recent years, including systems that publish information intended for consumption by citizens and users (Hood et al. 1999, 2004; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004). Most of the evaluation of such systems directs attention to the efficiency and effectiveness of bureaucracies and policy making rather than to the wider political arena. The connection between public management and political behavior has been largely neglected because the literatures have mostly been developed as separate areas of endeavor; this article seeks to fill this gap.
An opportunity for a first assessment of the political consequences of introducing a regime of published performance measures has been created by the introduction of Comprehensive Performance Assessments (CPAs) of local governments in England. The CPA system can be seen as a "shock" to existing voter-government relationships as it creates a rigorous, public performance measurement for the whole of English local government. The bodies subject to the regime are also subject to direct election, offering the opportunity to assess the electoral consequences of the introduction of the regime for incumbent local governments alongside other factors conventionally seen as influential on their support.
ELECTIONS AND INFORMATION ABOUT GOVERNMENTS" PERFORMANCE
The control of elected representatives through voting is one of the enduring themes of the theory of representative democracy, which posits that citizens transmit their preferences into policy choices by casting their votes. In the classic model of responsible party government (Jones and McDermott 2004; Ranney 1954), electors hold the party in control of the executive and/or the legislature to account, based on their judgments of performance and alternatives available to them (which may use retrospective or prospective assessments or some combination of the two). The "responsibility hypothesis "--also called the "reward--punish" hypothesis--suggests that if governments perform badly or depart from their promises or voters shift their position without a corresponding change in the government's policies, voters may "vote the rascals out" in a time-honored fashion and call in a new administration to effect their preferences.
It is often suggested that voters often do not have the levels of information necessary to judge the performance of an incumbent government (Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996, 79-82; Iyengar 1987; Milner 2002, 27). Information is needed to support democratic choices and, in extreme cases, a lack of information could break the chain of electoral accountability, making much of the rest of the practice of democracy redundant. However, in the main areas where citizen--policy performance links have been investigated, especially economic voting, research finds that many aspects of representative democracy do work in practice (Clarke et al. 2004; der Brug, van der Eijk, and Franklin 2007; Lewis-Beck and Paldam 2000; Sanders 2000; Wlezien 2004). Incumbent elected agents are often held responsible for macroeconomic performance and rewarded or punished in proportion to these levels or changes in these levels. A tradition of research and theory, going back at least as far as Downs (1957), suggests that voters economize on information by looking for cues to determine their action rather than making detailed assessments. Even though voters lack knowledge about the detail of changes in particular variables in the economy, they are still able to make informed judgments about the behavior of office holders to judge incumbents on economic performance (see Jacobson 1990; Kramer 1971; Lewis-Beck and Paldam 2000; MacKuen, Erikson, and Stimson 1992).
The role of information about performance of government services in electoral support for incumbents has particular relevance because of recent New Public Management (NPM) reforms. In part, NPM has involved increasingly sophisticated attempts to measure outputs and outcomes of public sector activity, measures validated by third-party auditors and inspectors that do not rely on service providers or users, although performance measures have a long history before this time and users and service producers normally have some role in their production. The trend is occurring in many OECD countries (Hood et al. 2004; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2004). For example, there have been major investments in the United Kingdom including systems for the "executive" parts of the civil service reorganized into "agencies," the National Health Service, and local government (Boyne 1998; Hood et al. 1999; James 2003, 2004; Pollitt, Birchall, and Putnam 1998). In the United States, the Government Performance and Results Act has mandated systems for Federal Government; systems have also been developed in most state and local governments (Melkers and Willoughby 1998; Moynihan 2005; Radin 1998).
When performance information is published, the measures of performance offer the potential better to inform citizens and service users about their quality. This information potentially supplements citizens' and users' own direct experiences and sources such as word of mouth or information provided by local public bodies themselves. The information may influence political participation, including how people vote. Of course, published information might influence citizens' actions in ways other than voting. At least two forms and their hybrid are commonly suggested. First, choice of provider by service users is typically taken as involving them choosing services that provide desired outcomes (often using a calculation involving costs and benefits with a consideration of the transaction costs involved in exercising choice). In this activity, information about performance is key in decision making and exercising choice which often involves "exit" from one provider and "entry" to another (perhaps by geographical movement by the household between different local government units). A second set of activities are often grouped together and labeled "voice" processes, in which various means of expression such as lobbying, voting, and protest reflect satisfaction or dissatisfaction with public services. There is a sizeable literature examining exit and voice processes and their outcomes (see John, Dowding, and Biggs 1995; Lyons and Lowery 1989; Tiebout 1956).
English local government offers an appropriate laboratory for exploring the publication effect on election outcomes. Although the systems of performance measures have developed piecemeal for many years, the sophistication of measures has increased recently with measures of performance covering each service sector. Crucially for our analysis, the establishment of the CPA regime was a major step...
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