Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:19:53.615Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Explaining the Accountability of Independent Agencies: The Importance of Political Salience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2011

Christel Koop
Christel Koop*
Affiliation:
Political Science, European University Institute
*
Christel Koop Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute, Via dei Roccettini 9, 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy, e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Independent agencies are exempted from the accountability mechanisms inherent in the ministerial hierarchy. To compensate for this, politicians incorporate all kinds of information and reporting requirements into the statutes of the organizations. However, the degree to which this occurs varies considerably, which raises the question: Why are some agencies are made more accountable than others? This study examines the impact of political salience on degrees of accountability, controlling for other potential explanations. Using original data on 103 independent agencies in the Netherlands, the analysis demonstrates that salience has a twofold effect. First, agencies dealing with more salient issues are made more politically accountable. Second, agencies whose statutes are written when the issue of accountability is more salient are also subject to higher degrees of accountability. Other explanatory factors are the number of veto players and the legal basis of the organization.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , August 2011 , pp. 209 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I am greatful for the comments of Peter Mair, Mark Bovens, John Huber, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Veerle van Doeveren, the participants in the workshop on coordination and control held at the EUI in October 2009, the participants in the comparative politics workshop held at Columbia University, and the anonymous reviewers. I would also like to thank the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund for its financial support, and Columbia University's Department of Political Science for hosting the workshop in the spring of 2010.

References

Andeweg, R. B.Irwin, G. A. (2009) Governance and Politics of the Netherlands. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, third edition.Google Scholar
Barker, A. (ed.) (1982) Quangos in Britain: Government and the Networks of Public Policy-Making. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bawn, K. (1995) Political control versus expertise: Congressional choices about administrative procedures. American Political Science Review 89(1): 62–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behn, R. D. (2001) Rethinking Democratic Accountability. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Benoit, K.Laver, M. (2006) Party Policy in Modern Democracies. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergman, T., Müller, W. C.Strøm, K. (2000) Introduction: Parliamentary democracy and the chain of delegation. European Journal of Political Research 37(3): 255–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertelli, A. M. (2006) Delegation to a quango: Ex ante and ex post ministerial constraints. Governance 19(2): 229–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binderkrantz, A. S.Christensen, J. G. (2009) Delegation without agency loss? The use of performance contracts in Danish central government. Governance 22(2): 263–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bouckaert, G.Peters, B. G. (2004) What is available and what is missing in the study of quangos? In Pollitt C. and Talbot C. (eds.), Unbundled Government: A Critical Analysis of the Global Trend to Agencies, Quangos and Contractualisation. London: Taylor and Francis, 22–49.Google Scholar
Bovens, M. (2007) Analysing and assessing accountability: A conceptual framework. European Law Journal 13(4): 447–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovens, M.Schillemans, T. (2009) Publieke verantwoording: Een handboek. In Bovens M. and Schillemans T. (eds.), Handboek publieke verantwoording. The Hague: Lemma, 9–16.Google Scholar
Calvert, R., McCubbins, M. D.Weingast, B. R. (1989) A theory of political control and agency discretion. American Journal of Political Science 33(3): 588–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, F. G.Mair, P. (1984) Left-right political scales: Some ‘expert’ judgments. European Journal of Political Research 12(1): 73–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudley, G. (1994) The next steps agencies, political salience and the arm's length principle. Public Administration 72(2): 219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Egeberg, M.Trondal, J. (2009) Political leadership and bureaucratic autonomy: Effects of agencification. Governance 22(4): 673–688.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elgie, R.McMenamin, I. (2005) Credible commitments, political uncertainty or political complexity? Explaining variation in the independence of non-majoritarian institutions in France. British Journal of Political Science 35(3): 531–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flinders, M. V.Smith, M. J. (1999) Realizing the democratic potential of quangos. In Flinders M. V. and Smith M. J. (eds.), Quangos, Accountability and Reform. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fournier, P., Blais, A., Nadeau, R., Gidengil, E.Nevitte, N. (2003) Issue importance and performance voting. Political Behavior 25(1): 51–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gains, F. (2004) Adapting the agency concept: Variations within “Next Steps”. In Pollitt C. and Talbot C. (eds.), Unbundled Government: A Critical Analysis of the Global Trend to Agencies, Quangos and Contractualisation. London and New York: Routledge, 53–74.Google Scholar
Gilardi, F. (2002) Policy credibility and delegation to independent regulatory agencies: A comparative empirical analysis. Journal of European Public Policy 9(6): 873–893.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greve, C., Flinders, M.Van Thiel, S. (1999) Quangos – What's in a name? Defining quangos from a comparative perspective. Governance 12(2): 129–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogwood, B. W., Judge, D.McVicar, M. (2000) Agencies and accountability. In Rhodes, R. (ed.), Transforming British Government. Volume 1: Changing Institutions. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 195–222.Google Scholar
Huber, J.Inglehart, R. (1995) Expert interpretations of party space and party locations in 42 societies. Party Politics 1(1): 73–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, J. D.Shipan, C. R. (2002) Deliberate Discretion? The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jongeneel, C. (2005) Verzelfstandiging: stijl of trend? De stijlen van verzelfstandiging van de beleidssectoren van de rijksoverheid; en hun consistentie met de institutionele context. Master thesis, Department of Public Administration, Erasmus University Rotterdam.Google Scholar
Koppell, J. G. (2005) Pathologies of accountability: ICANN and the challenge of “multiple accountabilities disorder”. Public Administration Review 65(1): 94–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kydland, F. E.Prescott, E. C. (1977) Rules rather than discretion: The inconsistency of optimal plans. Journal of Political Economy 85(3): 473–492.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. W., Rainey, H. G.Chun, Y. H. (2009) Of politics and purpose: Political salience and goal ambiguity of US federal agencies. Public Administration 87(3): 457–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maggetti, M. (2007) De facto independence after delegation: A fuzzy-set analysis. Regulation and Governance 1(4): 271–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Majone, G. (1996) Temporal consistency and policy credibility: Why democracies need non-majoritarian institutions. EUI Working Paper, RSC No 96/57.Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1997) From the positive to the regulatory state: Causes and consequences of changes in the mode of governance. Journal of Public Policy 17(2): 139–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCubbins, M. D.Schwartz, T. (1984) Congressional oversight overlooked: Police patrols versus fire alarms. American Journal of Political Science 28(1): 165–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mokken, R. J. (1971) A Theory and Procedure of Scale Analysis. Berlin: De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulgan, R. (2000) ‘Accountability’: An ever expanding concept? Public Administration 78(3): 555–573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philp, M. (2009) Delimiting democratic accountability. Political Studies 57(1): 28–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rabinowitz, G., Prothro, J. W.Jacoby, W. (1982) Salience as a factor in the impact of issues on candidate evaluation. Journal of Politics 44(1): 41–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringquist, E. J., Worsham, J.Eisner, M. A. (2003) Saliency, complexity, and the legislative direction of regulatory bureaucracies. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 13(2): 141–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, P. C.Trechsel, A. H. (eds.) (2004) The Future of Democracy in Europe: Trends, Analyses and Reforms. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.Google Scholar
Scott, C. (2000) Accountability in the regulatory state. Journal of Law and Society 27(1): 38–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soroka, S. N. (2002) Issue attributes and agenda-setting by media, the public, and policymakers in Canada. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 14(3): 264–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sulitzeanu-Kenan, R. (2010) Reflection in the shadow of blame: When do politicians appoint commissions of inquiry? British Journal of Political Science 40(3): 613–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
't Hart, P., Wille, A. C., Boin, R. A., Dijkstra, G. S., Van der Meer, F. M., Van Noort, W. J.Zannoni, M. (2002) Politiek-ambtelijke verhoudingen in beweging. Amsterdam: Boom.Google Scholar
Thatcher, M.Stone Sweet, A. (2002) Theory and practice of delegation to non-majoritarian institutions. West European Politics 25(1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trechsel, A. H. (2010) Reflexive accountability and direct democracy. West European Politics 33(5): 1050–1064.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsebelis, G. (1995) Decision making in political systems: Veto players in presidentialism, parliamentarism, multicameralism and multipartyism. British Journal of Political Science 25(3): 289–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsebelis, G. (1999) Veto players and law production in parliamentary democracies: An empirical analysis. American Political Science Review 93(3): 591–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uscinski, J. E. (2009) When does the public's issue agenda affect the media's issue agenda (and vice-versa)? Developing a framework for media-public influence. Social Science Quarterly 90(4): 796–815.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Montfort, C. J. (2010) Ontwikkelingen in toezicht en verantwoording bij instellingen op afstand: Een terugblik en een blik in de toekomst. Tijdschrift voor Toezicht 1(1): 6–20.Google Scholar
Van Schuur, W. H. (2003) Mokken scale analysis: Between the Guttman scale and parametric item response theory. Political Analysis 11: 139–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Thiel, S. (2001) Quangos: Trends, Causes and Consequences. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Van Thiel, S. (2006) Styles of reform: Differences in quango creation between policy sectors in the Netherlands. Journal of Public Policy 26(2): 115–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Thiel, S.Verhoest, K. (2004) Herstel van het primaat van de politiek: Een vergelijking van de ontwikkelingen in het beleid rond verzelfstandigde organisaties in Nederland en Vlaanderen. Beleid en Maatschappij 31(1): 27–41.Google Scholar
Weir, S. (1995) Quangos: Questions of democratic accountability. Parliamentary Affairs 48(2): 306–323.Google Scholar
Wlezien, C. (2005) On the salience of political issues: The problem with ‘the most important problem’. Electoral Studies 24(4): 555–579.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yesilkagit, K.Christensen, J. G. (2010) Institutional design and formal autonomy: Political versus historical and cultural explanations. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 20(1): 53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar