"Offices of Inspectors General (or OIGs), bureaucratic units dedicated to government accountability, are a relatively new phenomenon. Virtually none existed before 1976, but now two-thirds of the states and many localities have them. OIGs spread quickly with the passage in 1978 of the Inspector General Act. Today there are 73 offices in the federal government, which have received all of the scholarly attention. In addition, however, there are over 150 state and local OIGs, and 31 states have at least one office. These ...
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"Offices of Inspectors General (or OIGs), bureaucratic units dedicated to government accountability, are a relatively new phenomenon. Virtually none existed before 1976, but now two-thirds of the states and many localities have them. OIGs spread quickly with the passage in 1978 of the Inspector General Act. Today there are 73 offices in the federal government, which have received all of the scholarly attention. In addition, however, there are over 150 state and local OIGs, and 31 states have at least one office. These understudied OIGs were established originally on the model of the federal offices, but they have developed in distinct ways, often deviating from the norm because of different views about the powers such offices should hold. The Power of Accountability is the first study to shed light on these local OIGs. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, including theories of neo-institutionalism and policy diffusion, Robin Kempf-herself a former Inspector General of the Kansas Health Policy Authority-helps us understand why OIGs are spreading so rapidly, why they vary so substantially in their design, and what the implications of this variation are for state and local OIGs as a mechanism of accountability"--
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