Accountability and Regulatory Governance: Audiences, Controls and Responsibilities in the Politics of Regulation(Executive Politics and Governance)

Through a systematic exploration of accountability in regulatory governance, this collection makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on the subject. Chapters authored by a selection of the most influential figures in the field of regulatory governance address how to introduce political and policy accountability to the actors and institutions involved in the policy process, a key issue in relation to regulatory policy legitimacy. Beyond conventional accountability procedures within the political system, the volume discusses the extent to which more specific accountability tools to communicate with more diverse audiences have emerged. The first section introduces a quantitative approach to measure the actual dimensions of accountability instruments already in place within regulatory agencies, while the second utilises comparative approaches, case studies and theoretical discussions which focus on the diverse problems actors and institutions face to make their activities and procedures more accountable to their constituencies and to society as a whole. The final contributions explore the implications that accountability challenges pose to democratic procedures and global governance processes and discuss how accountability, regulatory governance and democracy are related.

Table of Contents:
1. When Accountability Meets Regulation: An Introduction; Jacint Jordana, Andrea C. Bianculli and Xavier-Fernandez-i-Marin 2. Varieties of Accountability Mechanisms in Regulatory Agencies; Xavier-Fernandez-i-Marin, Jacint Jordana and Andrea C. Bianculli 3. Explaining Self-Perceived Accountability of Regulatory Agencies in Comparative Perspective: How do Formal Independence and De Facto Managerial Autonomy Interact; Koen Verhoest, Astrid Molenveld and Tom Willems 4. Assessing the Mandatory Accountability of Regulatory Agencies; Christel Koop 5. Modelling the Relationship between Independence and Accountability of Regulatory Agencies; Mattia Guidi 6. Designing Accountability Regimes at the European Union Level; Nuria Font 7. Social Accountability in the Regulatory Policy Process: The Governance of Telecommunications in Italy and Spain; Maria Stella Righettini and Selena Grimaldi 8. Accountability of the IRAs in Turkey: A Cross-Sectoral Comparison; Isik Ozel 9. Regulatory Capitalism, Accountability and Democracy; Colin Scott 10. Financial Markets and Regulatory Accountability: Between Technocratic Autonomy and Democratic Direction; Nicholas Dorn 11. Accountability and Consumer Sovereignty; Martin Lodge 12. Some Comparative Conclusions on Regulatory Governance and Accountability; Andrea C. Bianculli, Jacint Jordana, Xavier Fernandez-i-Marin

About the Author :
Andrea C. Bianculli is Research Fellow at Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) since October 2013. She has a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (2010). She has also held a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Research College "The Transformative Power of Europe", Freie Universitat Berlin, and assistant research position at the Facultad Lationamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO/Argentina). Her research expertise is in the area of international political economy, global and regional governance, trade and regulatory governance, with a special focus on Latin America, though she has also worked on comparative political economy. Xavier Fernandez-i-Marin is Assistant Professor at the ESADE Business School, Barcelona. He is also teaches at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. His main research line is on the methodology of social sciences, with substantial contributions in public administration, public policy and international relations. He has worked in the fields of global governance, the diffusion of policies and institutions, the processes of development of regulatory agencies, and on Internet and e-Government diffusion and other related aspects of the public management of the Information Society. Jacint Jordana is Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Director at the Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Spain, an inter-university research institute devoted to international studies. He has a PhD in Economics (Universitat de Barcelona, 1992). He has been visiting fellow at the Australian National University, Wissenschafts Zentrum Berlin, University of California (San Diego) and Konstanz University.

Review :
'The rise of regulatory governance has given new salience to the old question 'who guards the guardians?' This volume, with contributions by the best scholars in the field, is a true landmark. It provides the first comprehensive and comparative overview of the state of regulatory accountability in Western democracies.' - Mark Bovens, Utrecht University School of Governance, The Netherlands 'Clear conceptual thinking about the accountability of regulators is in short supply. This book offers a major remedy. Qualitative and quantitative depiction of variation among states and types of agencies in accountability up, down and horizontally is in even shorter supply. This book again has a remedy on offer. It is a collection of unusual coherence in its focus on fundamental yet neglected questions. A feast of fine authors to devour these challenges'. - John Braithwaite, Australian National University, Australia 'How can regulatory bodies conciliate the imperatives of autonomy and accountability? To whom are they accountable, for what, by what means and with what kind of standards? Does accountability in the real world equal their accountability on paper? Combining approaches and methods, this path-breaking collection moves beyond normative considerations and offers a clinical view of the accountability relations of a large number of regulators in several policy sectors, in many countries and in the European Union. Equipped with rigorous conceptual lenses and substantiated with a wealth of data, the contributions elegantly show the astonishing diversity and increasing complexity of accountability regimes. By exploring the impact of the 'regulatory state' on accountabilities this book compellingly identifies some major challenges to the quality of democratic life generated by transformations of governance practice'. - Yannis Papadopoulos, University of Lausanne, France