An accountability deficit? Holding transgovernmental networks to account

Abstract

International cooperation in networks between national civil servants is often judged necessary to address global policy challenges. The civil servants cooperating with each other in these transgovernmental networks (TGNs), are often employed by national agencies that are not part of a ministry. It is therefore assumed in the literature that participating in a TGN renders account giving to a political forum difficult. We offer in this paper a state-centered perspective on the functioning of TGNs to assess whether a trade-off exists between accountability and the creation of technocratic driven networks. We develop a typology of TGNs and accountability, based on the function and the governance style of networks. In three out of four cases studied, variation in the institutional set-up influences which type of accountability is dominant. In one case we expected to find political accountability but observed that elected politicians did not hold civil servants in TGNs to account.