| In this dissertation I draw on democratic and political economic theory to analyze the concept accountability as it pertains to debates over democracy and global governance. Given the prevalence of market ideology in the globalization debates, I begin with a discussion of markets as a vehicle of accountability. Drawing on Milton Friedman, Frederich Hayek, and Albert O. Hirschman's framework of exit and voice, I illustrate some of the advantages market accountability might bring. I then use Karl Polanyi's notion of "embeddedness" to argue that market accountability is no substitute for democratic accountability.; I go on to discuss several models of democratic accountability, including models drawn from: ancient Athens; the Federalists and Anti-Federalists; agency theory and social choice models of democracy; and deliberative democracy. While accountability is often treated as a vehicle of discipline and control, I draw attention to how it can also have a constitutive role in generating democratic publics. And I illustrate how both institutional and non-institutional actors have a role to play in fostering democratically accountable governance.; Accountability dynamics invariably involve antecedent accountings whereby it is determined who is accountable to whom for what. The authority to make such determinations is often thought to lie, finally, in the sovereign people. Accountability, however, is incompatible with sovereignty. And for the same reason that unaccountable tyrants might be seen as a threat to the public good, so too might unaccountable publics be seen as a problem. I maintain that this antecedent accounting itself needs to be drawn into the accountability dynamic. Pursuant of this, I argue for what I call critical accountability , a notion of accountability that seeks to interrogate its own grounding. Rather than seeing accountability as something to be achieved in any present, I argue that it should be approached as an ongoing project, as both a predicament and a promise. To this end, I advocate on the one hand the creation of institutions such as ombudsmanships and inspection panels, and on the other the invigoration of an active civil society. |
