Review by Choice Review
The editors of this bold collection of essays on governmental accountability and representation begin by expressing discontent with their own findings, and this is exactly what they conclude. After reading through eleven often highly technical essays on topics such as accountability in elections, representation, and political parties in various Western democracies, students of political accountability might be well justified in asking if the conclusions were worth the time involved. What conclusions? That information for citizens is important--vital in fact--in governmental accountability, and that the main difficulty in "instructing governments in what to do and judging what they have done is that we, citizens just do not know enough." These are indeed not groundbreaking new findings. But that does not mean these are not interesting and provocative essays. Particularly well considered is John Dunn's essay, which situates studies of political accountability in relationship to the larger field of democratic studies. The majority of these studies, however, will be of interest only to specialists. J. L. Miller; SUNY College at New Paltz
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
