What Deficit? The Real World of EU Accountability - Chapter 1: The EU’s Accountability Deficit: Reality or Myth?
WHAT DEFICIT? THE REAL WORLD OF EU ACCOUNTABILITY, Mark Bovens, Deirdre Curtin, & Paul 't Hart, eds., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010
13 Pages Posted: 21 Dec 2009 Last revised: 6 Apr 2011
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
This paper is the introduction to a book that rests on a simple premise: since European governance matters a lot in a growing number of domains, questions about how European governance should, could and is being accounted for, are increasingly salient. The contribution this book seeks to make is to shed light on how such accountability for European governance is presently organized, how it occurs in practice, and how such practices can be evaluated. This book reports the findings of a major empirical study into patterns and practices of accountability in European governance. It is the product of a four-year project involving four senior and three junior scholars all affiliated with the Utrecht School of Governance of Utrecht University. It assesses to what extent and how the people that populate the key arenas where European public policy is made or implemented are held accountable. Using a systematic analytical framework, it examines not just the formal accountability arrangements but also describes and compares how these operate in practice. In doing so, it provides a unique, empirically grounded contribution to the pivotal but often remarkably fact-free debate about democracy and accountability in European governance.
Keywords: European governance, accountability, democratic deficit
JEL Classification: K33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation