Accounting and participatory governance for public sector hybridity

This chapter unpacks participatory governance (PG) as one of the essential elements of hybridity and considers the role accounting plays in this. First, the development of the participatory agenda is reviewed, reflecting on how governments have moved from the mere procedures of representative democracy towards a deliberative model of empowerment and citizen participation. Further, the chapter presents the forms of accounting that serve social justice and ensure democratic legitimacy and effectiveness, as well as the challenges of each form. With minor exceptions, most of the accounting tools reviewed are, in practice, unable to fulfil their promise as deliberative tools for PG. The chapter addresses the presented challenges through alternative perspectives on the formation of accounting tools, including emerging discussion of dialogic accounting, pluralism and multiple values. These different perspectives together facilitate critical reflection on how different forms of accounting can progress to serve PG for public sector hybridity.