From Elections to Democracy: Building Accountable Government in Hungary and Poland by Susan s> Rose-Ackerman (review)

Abstract

576 SEER, 84, 3, JULY 2006 Primakov'svolume adds to our knowledge of high level politics in the late Soviet and earlypost-Sovietperiod. However, Englishlanguagereaderswould welcome more detailed contributions from Evgenii Maksimovich on his personal life and the state(s)he representedand served. School ofPolitical andSocialInquigy P. LENTINI MonashUniversit Rose-Ackerman, Susan. FromElections toDemocracy: Building Accountable Government inHungagy andPoland. CambridgeUniversityPress,Cambridge,2005. Xii + 272 pp. Tables. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography.Index. ?35.oo: $50.00. FOLLOWING the heady days of the revolutionsin EasternEurope at the end of the I98os, academic and practitionerfocus was on the institutionalizationof democracy in the area through the introductionof competitive elections and multipartypolitics. More recently, however, attention has turned to making democratically elected institutions accountable to the people. This volume by Susan Rose-Ackermanthus comes at an appropriatepoint in the evolution of Central European politics, when fifteen years' experience and several changes of governmenthave allowed all the statesin the region to evaluatethe structuralweakness in their democratic systems. It is a study of what the author terms 'policy-makingaccountability'(asopposed to implementationor 'performance'accountability)in Hungary and Poland. In viewing accountability from a variety of differentconceptual and institutionalperspectives,RoseAckerman provides a detailed and nuanced consideration of the issues she examines. The book is dividedinto eleven chapters,organizedaccordingto five different possible routes to policy-makingaccountability:external or international accountability;accountabilitythrough oversightbodies inside central government ; the exercise of accountabilityat and by lower-level government; neocorporatismand other forms of public consultation,and participationby civil society. Following an introduction,chapters two and three establishthe conceptual and empirical underpinningsof the volume. Chapter two introduces the different routes to accountability outlined above, while chapter three examines the legacy of the Communistpast and its role in shapingthe current Central European political context. With chapterfour,the book begins a seriesof detailedanalysesof the different means of achieving accountability, starting in chapter four itself with a consideration of external accountability, with primary reference to the European Union. Chapter five considersoversightwithin the state apparatus, chapter six looks at decentralizedpolitical accountability,and chapter seven assessescorporatiststructurestogetherwith other formsof public consultation. The next three chapters focus on the final avenue to accountability participationby citizens and organized groups concentratingon environmental groups in Hungary and student/youth groups in Poland. Chapter REVIEWS 577 eight gives an overview of the range of civil society groups in these countries, theirorganizationand resourcing,and theirinvolvementin the policy process. Chapter nine examines the role of environmental groups in Hungary in greater detail, while chapter ten does the same for student/youth groups in Poland. The final chapter, chapter eleven, sums up the findings of the volume, provides an extended account of the US example, and closes with a series of recommendationsas to how Hungary and Poland could improve accountability . The chapter'sgeneralconclusionis that the CentralEuropeanstatesought to do more to involve civil society organizationsin the policy process. Rose-Ackerman is careful to highlight achievements as well as problems, and while the study does have a strongprescriptiveelement, the descriptions and analysesit containsare balanced and supportedwith substantialevidence. Though very detailed, it avoids fallinginto the trap of not seeing the forestfor the trees;it is clearlystructuredwith good analysisand summariesat the end of each substantivechapter. Though some political scientistsmight be disappointedthat the book is not more explanatory,its descriptive,analyticaland prescriptiveaims are skilfully achieved. It supplies a trove of detailed factual information and data on the wide range of institutions studied, which will be useful for those without the language skillsto access the relevant documentation in the original. The analyses also refer frequently to forty valuable interviews with key actors (mostlyconducted in 2002 and 2003). A number of criticisms can invariablybe made of any book, and this is no exception. More theoretical consideration might have been given to the meaning of accountabilityand its differenttreatmentsin the political-theory literature. The selection of cases could have been more explicitly defended, and the stateschosen could have been bettersituatedin the broadercontext of the region. There could also have been more justificationfor the selection of substantiveareas of policy on which to focus (the environment in Hungary and student/youth groups in Poland). But the most significantproblem with the study is that it pays scant attention to the role of political parties in the policy process. The Western European experience...