Book Publications
Accountability and Democracy: The Pitfalls and Promise of Popular Control (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Motivated by concerns that contemporary systems of democratic accountability are in crisis, this book draws on different historical and theoretical approaches to illuminate democratic accountability’s diverse meanings and implications. It explores democratic accountability not only as a source of popular control but also as a source of community building and as a source of radical democratic disruption, domestically and globally.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part One: Punishability, Representation, Control
1. Managing Republicanism: Accountability Deficits and the U.S. Ratification Debates
2. Disciplining Democracy: The Principal–Agent Model of Accountability
Part Two: Answerability, Community, Participation
3. Constituting the Polis: Participatory Accountability in Ancient Athens
4. Answering for Exclusion: Deliberative Democracy and the Demands of Justice
Part Three: Globalization, Markets, Disruption
5. Displacing Democracy: Market Accountability and the Consumer-Citizen
6. Disorienting Cosmopolitanism: Accountability and the Politics of Insurgence
Conclusion: Democratic Accountability as Predicament and Promise
Praise for Accountability and Democracy
“Accountability and Democracy brings important insights from classical political theory to bear on pressing contemporary issues. This is an advance in democratic theory and in understanding popular participation in the modern state.” – Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council
“Borowiak’s book is a magisterial achievement. ‘Democratic accountability’ has become a buzzword of our day and is at the heart of political and economic struggles around the world. With great intellectual dexterity, Borowiak takes us on a path-breaking intellectual journey ranging across time, space, and multiple disciplines—leaving no valuable insight behind, yet excluding none from critical scrutiny. This book is the definitive work on accountability and offers indispensable insights into the dynamic relationships between formal institutions and informal publics, as well as those between established political communities and those who do not yet count.” – Romand Coles, Director, Program for Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University
“This book evokes all the right descriptors. In spirit it is daring and creative, yet also modest. In execution it is precise and systematic, yet also movingly written. Borowiak opens up a new democracy of post-sovereign community and legitimacy. It is a compelling invitation.” – Jan Aart Scholte, Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick
“In this superb book, Craig Borowiak has done the field a great favor by adding theoretical sophistication and historical context to many of the contemporary debates about accountability. He convincingly links a wide array of literatures with a clear and accessible vision and advances arguments about democratic accountability and global governance in an engaging and nuanced way.” – Keally McBride, Department of Politics, University of San Francisco
“Borowiak offers an anti-foundationalist critique of the commonly accepted view of democratic accountability that significantly expands its meaning. This analysis adds an important dimension to modern accounts of democracy.” – CHOICE
“The author deserves credit for going where other scholars would fear to tread. He admirably illustrates the wide range of political phenomena and social-scientific literatures that bear directly on the subject of accountability.” – Perspectives on Politics
Craig Borowiak 