EUROGOV
No. C-06-02
Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings
Promoting Accountability in Multi-Level Governance:
A Network Approach
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Published: April 7, 2006
Abstract
This paper seeks to address problems of accountability in
systems of multi-level governance organized around networks,
more particularly the system obtaining in the European Union.
Discussion of these problems has previously focused on the
‘accountability deficit’ created when gaps are
left by the accountability machinery of two of the several
levels of government, supranational and national. This paper
suggests that the hierarchical and pyramidal assumptions that
presently underpin accountability theory in the EU context
need to be tested and that new evaluative frameworks may be
necessary. Using case studies of the Community Courts and
European Ombudsman as examples, the paper suggests that new,
flatter ‘accountability networks’ are emerging,
composed of agencies specializing in a specific method of
accountability, which come together or coalesce in a relationship
of mutual dependency, fortified by shared professional expertise
and ethos. These might ultimately be capable of providing
effective machinery for accountability in network governance
systems.
Keywords:
governance, accountability, networks, European Court of Justice,
European Ombudsman
Carol
Harlow – London School
of Economics
e-mail: C.Harlow@lse.ac.uk
Richard Rawlings
– London School of Economics
e-mail: R.Rawlings@lse.ac.uk
© 2006 Carol Harlow
and Richard Rawlings
Citing this EUROGOV
paper:
Harlow, Carol, and Richard Rawlings. 2006. Promoting Accountability
in Multi-Level Governance: A Network Approach. European
Governance Papers (EUROGOV) No. C-06-02,
http://www.connex-network.org/eurogov/pdf/egp-connex-C-06-02.pdf
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