Putting auditing in the context of democratic governance: the question of auditing discretion from the public’s perspective

We explore public attitudes towards public auditing to reveal the sources of the legitimacy granted to state auditors to exercise their discretion, and apply a broad-based approach to the audit. Based on a survey distributed to Israeli citizens, our findings indicate that trust in the political system and expectations about procedural justice in it are related to expectations that state auditors should exercise their discretion and conduct broad audits. There are also complex relationships between citizens’ perceptions about the effectiveness of the channels available to them to influence the government and their expectations that auditors should exercise their discretion.