Expectations of Accountability

Abstract

Abstract Struggles over accountability have become central to contemporary politics. Not only states, but also institutions like universities, charities, churches, companies, and international organizations are now widely deemed to be subject to an ‘accountability paradigm’. The premise of this book is that with the proliferation of expectations of accountability, incentives for powerholders to find ways of sabotaging accountability have also proliferated. It attaches the adjective ‘authoritarian’ to such practices. It will show how, instead of focusing exclusively on authoritarian regimes, or on authoritarian personalities, political scientists can and should study (that is, define, operationalize, observe, classify, analyse) authoritarian practices. Authoritarian practices in a global age also go ‘beyond the state’ in the sense that they cross borders and that they are not carried out by government agents alone. In this book, we see government agents collaborating with each other as well as with international organization staff, religious leaders, criminal enterprises, or corporate entities.