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Democratic Accountability, Political Order, and Change: Exploring Accountability Processes in an Era of European Transformation
Ongoing transformations of the political organization of Europe, where both the nation-state and the European Union are challenged, make it possible to explore phenomena that are difficult to see in stable periods. An upsurge in accountability-demands, where political leaders are required to explain and justify what they are doing, is one such phenomenon.
Mainstream approaches to democratic accountability, assuming settled principal-agent relations may give insight into the routines of institutional accountability. This book argues that it is not enough to analyze how accountability processes contribute to routinized maintenance of an established order within relatively stable, simple, and well-known situations. We need to understand accountability in eras of institutional confusion and contestation and in dynamic, complex, and unknown situations. First, variations in the relations between democratic accountability and political association, organization, and agency are endogenous to politics. Second, accountability processes take place within both settled and unsettled orders. They can be both order-maintaining and order-transforming. Third, accountability involves sense-making as well as decision-making. Fourth, accountability may involve mass mobilization or go on largely unnoticed by the public. Fifth, accountability processes may
or may not foster new ideas about political order, government, and the role of rank-and-file citizens in political life. They may or may not affect what democracy will mean and imply in the future.
The aim of this book is to contribute to the theorization of democratic accountability and to discuss what accountability processes tell us about political order and orderly change in general.
Mainstream approaches to democratic accountability, assuming settled principal-agent relations may give insight into the routines of institutional accountability. This book argues that it is not enough to analyze how accountability processes contribute to routinized maintenance of an established order within relatively stable, simple, and well-known situations. We need to understand accountability in eras of institutional confusion and contestation and in dynamic, complex, and unknown situations. First, variations in the relations between democratic accountability and political association, organization, and agency are endogenous to politics. Second, accountability processes take place within both settled and unsettled orders. They can be both order-maintaining and order-transforming. Third, accountability involves sense-making as well as decision-making. Fourth, accountability may involve mass mobilization or go on largely unnoticed by the public. Fifth, accountability processes may
or may not foster new ideas about political order, government, and the role of rank-and-file citizens in political life. They may or may not affect what democracy will mean and imply in the future.
The aim of this book is to contribute to the theorization of democratic accountability and to discuss what accountability processes tell us about political order and orderly change in general.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 9, 2017
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January 27, 2023
It took me two weeks and nearly 10 pages of notes to finish this book. When reading academic books, I apply the technique of speed reading – I skip huge parts of the books not because they are bad or boring (even though some of them are) but because I don’t need them for my own work. It is a bit sad to admit this consumeristic approach but… well, it is how it is and there are just too many books and too little time.
I mention it to explain how important and extraordinary this book is. I read it from the first to the last page and I skimmed only a few paragraphs now and then. Johan Olsen spoke to me on completely different level that 99% of the scientists have ever before. I could identify with his approach, methodology and especially with the way he sees the world. One thing is to admire a researcher. It is another completely different thing to identify with the academic (and more or less personal) views of a researcher. This book hit both spots for me.
4.5*
I mention it to explain how important and extraordinary this book is. I read it from the first to the last page and I skimmed only a few paragraphs now and then. Johan Olsen spoke to me on completely different level that 99% of the scientists have ever before. I could identify with his approach, methodology and especially with the way he sees the world. One thing is to admire a researcher. It is another completely different thing to identify with the academic (and more or less personal) views of a researcher. This book hit both spots for me.
4.5*
Displaying 1 of 1 review