Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T19:05:05.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2005

RUTH W. GRANT  and
ROBERT O. KEOHANE
RUTH W. GRANT
Affiliation:
Duke University
ROBERT O. KEOHANE
Affiliation:
Princeton University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Debates about globalization have centered on calls to improve accountability to limit abuses of power in world politics. How should we think about global accountability in the absence of global democracy? Who should hold whom to account and according to what standards? Thinking clearly about these questions requires recognizing a distinction, evident in theories of accountability at the nation-state level, between “participation” and “delegation” models of accountability. The distinction helps to explain why accountability is so problematic at the global level and to clarify alternative possibilities for pragmatic improvements in accountability mechanisms globally. We identify seven types of accountability mechanisms and consider their applicability to states, NGOs, multilateral organizations, multinational corporations, and transgovernmental networks. By disaggregating the problem in this way, we hope to identify opportunities for improving protections against abuses of power at the global level.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 99 , Issue 1 , February 2005 , pp. 29 - 43
Copyright
© 2005 by the American Political Science Association

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.)

References

Anderson Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. 2ed. London, Verso.
Arendt Hannah. 1963. On Revolution. London, Penguin.
Australian Council of Trade Unions. 2002. The Other Face of Globalization. http://www.actu.asn.au/public/papers/otherglobal-face.htm.
Barfield Claude. 2001. Free Trade, Sovereignty, Democracy: The Future of the World Trade Organization. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.
BBC. 1998. “Brent Spar's Long Saga.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/I/hi/sci/tech/218527.stm. Accessed June 17, 2003.
Buchanan Allen, and Robert O. Keohane. 2004. “The preventive use of force: a cosmopolitan institutional proposal.” Ethics and International Affairs 18 (1): 1– 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke Edmund. (1774) 1949. “Speech to the Electors in Bristol.” In Burke's Politics: Selected Writings and Speeches, ed. Ross J. S. Hoffman and Paul Levack, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 115– 16.
Claude Inis L. 1962. Power and International Relations. New York: Random House.
Cook Terence E., and Patrick M. Morgan. 1971. “Introduction to Participatory Democracy.” In Participatory Democracy, ed. T. E. Cook and P. M. Morgan. New York: Harper & Row, 1– 42.
Dahl Robert. 1956. A Preface to Democratic Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dahl Robert A. 1999. “Can International Organizations Be Democratic?” In Democracy's Edges, ed. I. Shapiro and C. Hacker-Cordón. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19– 36.
Falk Richard, and Andrew Strauss. 2000. “On the Creation of a Global People's Assembly: Legitimacy and the Power of Popular Sovereignty.” Stanford Journal of International Law 36 (summer): 191.Google Scholar
Florini Ann. 2003. The Coming Democracy: New Rules for Running a World. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Fox Jonathan A., and L. David Brown, eds. 1998. The Struggle for Accountability: The World Bank, NGOs and Grassroots Movements. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Franck Thomas M. 1990. The Power of Legitimacy among Nations. New York: Oxford University Press.
Franck Thomas M. 1995. Fairness in International Law and Institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Garcia-Johnson Ronie-Richelle. 2000. Exporting Environmentalism: U.S. Multinational Chemical Corporations in Brazil and Mexico. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Goldstein Judith, et al. 2001. Legalization and World Politics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Grant Ruth W., and Stephen Grant. 1981. “The Madisonian Presidency.” In The Presidency in the Constitutional Order, ed. Joseph M. Bessette and Jeffrey Tulis. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press, 31– 64.
Hamilton Alexander, James Madison, and John Jay. (1787) 1982. The Federalist Papers, ed. Garry Wills. New York: Bantam.
Held David. 1995. Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Independent International Commission on Kosovo. 2000. Kosovo Report. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. 2001. The Responsibility to Protect. Ottawa: Government of Canada.
Keck Margaret, and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Keohane Robert O. 2003. “The Concept of Accountability in World Politics and the Use of Force.” Michigan Journal of International Law 24 (4): 1– 21.Google Scholar
Keohane Robert O., and Joseph S. Nye Jr. 1974. “Transgovern- mental Relations and World Politics.” World Politics 29 (1).: 39– 62.Google Scholar
Keohane Robert O., and Joseph S. Nye Jr. 2001. Power and Interdependence. 3rd ed. New York: Addison–Wesley Longman.
Keohane Robert O., and Joseph S. Nye Jr. 2003. “Redefining Accountability for Global Governance.” In Governance in a Global Economy: Political Authority in Transition, ed. Miles Kahler and David Lake. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Krouse Richard W. 1982. “Two Concepts of Democratic Representation: James and John Stuart Mill.” Journal of Politics 44 (2) May: 509– 37.Google Scholar
Locke John. (1690) 1980. Second Treatise of Government, ed. C. B. Macpherson. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Lutz Ellen L., and Kathryn Sikkink. 2000. “International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America.” International Organization, 54 (3): 633– 59.Google Scholar
Majone Giandomenico. 2001. “Two Logics of Delegation: Agency and Fiduciary Relations in EU Governance.” European Union Politics 2 (1): 103– 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malanczuk Peter. 1997. Akehurst's Introduction to International Law. 7th rev. ed. London: Routledge.
Maravall Jose Maria. 1999. Accountability and manipulation. In Democracy, Accountability, and Representation, ed. A. Przeworski, S. C. Stokes, and B. Manin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 154– 96.
Moravcsik Andrew 1998. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Moravcsik Andrew 2002. “In Defense of the “Democratic Deficit”: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union.” Journal of Common Market Studies 40 (4): 603– 24.Google Scholar
Mosley Layna. 2003. Global Capital and National Governments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nielson Daniel, and Michael J. Tierney. 2003. Delegation to international organizations: Agency theory and World Bank environmental reform. International Organization 57 (2): 241– 76.Google Scholar
Norris Pippa. 2000. “Global Governance and Cosmopolitan Citizens”. In Governance in a Globalizing World ed. Joseph S. Nye and John D. Donahue. Washington: Bookings Insitution. pp. 155– 77.
Nye Joseph S. 2004. Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs Press.
Oakerson Ronald J. 1989. “Governance Structures for Enhancing Accountability and Responsiveness.” In Handbook of Public Administration, ed. James L. Perry. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass.
One World Trust. 2003. Power without Accountability? By Hetty Kovach, Caroline Nelligan, and Simon Burall. London: One World Trust.
Pitkin Hannah. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Pollack Mark A. 1997. “Delegation, Agency and Agenda-Setting in the European Community.” International Organization 51 (1): 99– 134.Google Scholar
Reinicke Wolfgang H. 1999–2000. “The Other World Wide Web: Global Public Policy Networks.” Foreign Policy 117 (Winter): 44– 57.Google Scholar
Rousseau Jean-Jacques. (1762) 1988. “On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Right.” In Rousseau's Political Writings, ed. Alan Ritter and Julia Conaway Bondanella. New York: W. W. Norton.
Sen Amartya. 1999. “Democracy as a Universal Value.” Journal of Democracy 10 (3): 3– 17.Google Scholar
Slaughter Anne-Marie. 2004. A New World Order. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stewart Richard. 2003. “Administrative Law in the Twenty-First Century.” New York University Law Review 78, No. 2.Google Scholar
Stiglitz Joseph E. 2002. Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: Norton.
Storing Herbert J., ed. 1981. The Anti-Federalist (an abridgement by Murray Dry of the Complete Anti-Federalist). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Students for a Democratic Society. 1962. “The Port Huron Statement.” http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/ hst306/documents/huron.htm.
Taggart Paul. 2000. Populism. Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Weiler J. H. H. 1999. The Constitution of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wolf Martin. 2004. Why Globalization Works. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Woods Ngaire. 1998. “Governance in International Organizations: The Case for Reform in the Bretton Woods Institutions.” In International Monetary and Financial Issues for the 1990s: Research Papers for the Group of Twenty-Four. Vol. IX. New York and Geneva: United Nations, 81– 105.
Woods Ngaire. 2001. “Making the IMF and World Bank More Accountable.” International Affairs 77 (1): 83– 100.Google Scholar
World Bank. 2000. Attacking Poverty. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Young Iris Marion. 2000. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.