Constraining Governments: New Indices of Vertical, Horizontal, and Diagonal Accountability

2020/05/20 by ANNA LÜHRMANN, Anna Lührmann, KYLE L. MARQUARDT +3 · 1 voice · 15 citations
Social Sciences · #Corruption and Economic Development #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Local Government Finance and Decentralization

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0003055420000222

openalex publication_date 2020/05/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

Accountability—constraints on a government’s use of political power—is one of the cornerstones of good governance. However, conceptual stretching and a lack of reliable measures have limited cross-national research on this concept. To address this research gap, we use V-Dem data and innovative Bayesian methods to develop new indices of accountability and its subtypes: the extent to which governments are accountable to citizens (vertical accountability), other state institutions (horizontal accountability), and the media and civil society (diagonal accountability). In this article, we describe the conceptual and empirical framework underlying these indices and demonstrate their content, convergent, and construct validity. The resulting indices have unprecedented coverage (1900–present) and offer researchers and policymakers new opportunities to investigate the causes and consequences of accountability and its disaggregated subtypes. Furthermore, the methodology provides a framework for theoretically driven index construction to scholars working with cross-national panel data.

Citations

• Making Embedded Knowledge Transparent: How the V-Dem Dataset Opens New Vistas in Civil Society Research
• The Accountability Sequence: from De-Jure to De-Facto Constraints on Governments

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Discussions

• Accountability consists of three subtypes: the extent to which governments are accountable to 1) citizens (vertical accountability), 2) other state institutions (horizontal accountability), and 3) the [bsky, 3 points, 1 comments]

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