Challenges of Accountability: The Case of Post-Soviet Estonian Rural Local Governments

Accountability in social work is carried out in two dimensions, in the interaction between professionalism and social work practice. The aim of this research is to explore administrative social work accountability in Estonian rural local governments. The utilized methodology has been the collective case study (Mills 2010; Punch 2009). I followed the information-oriented selection: the cases of maximum variation by size and location (Frankfort-Nachmias & Nachmias 1996). Triangulation has been used as a procedure for acquiring data. Further analysis was conducted by using a taxonomic approach (Ragin 2011). The lack of national regulation with an insufficient understanding of social work has affected the local governments‟ ability to choose the best of the available opinions. An agreement has been missing as to how the local government shares responsibility with the State and the families. In the current situation, the responsibilities of each of the parties are not specified. The situation is unclearwho is actually the client of the rural local government? The local-centered approach makes the local government’s social work practice politically loaded. In the future, however, the model of an independent professional social worker and of the recipient being the most important participant of the service provider system should prevail.