2025/06/17 by Melanie Sofia Hartvigsen, Jaseff Raziel Yauri-Miranda · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Intelligence, Security, War Strategy
paper · doi:10.1080/13510347.2025.2514012
openalex publication_date 2025/06/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
This study addresses a gap in Intelligence Studies by conducting an empirical investigation into how various civil society actors perceive their role in promoting accountability within the intelligence services. Applying the theoretical frameworks of democratic agonism and institutional logics, the study explores how civil society actors perceive their role in ensuring intelligence accountability and rationalize their contributions as potential enhancers of intelligence legitimacy. Through in-depth interviews with seven civil society organizations in Denmark (NGOs, labour unions, interest groups, and member-funded associations), the research analyses their values, beliefs, and institutional rules concerning intelligence accountability. The findings reveal a tension in which actors advocate for deeper democratic values and contestation, but adapt to existing institutional oversight practices, leading to an imbalance between their ideals and the limited impact of their actions. To explain this imbalance, we discuss the institutional and symbolic dimensions that influence the role of civil society, addressing institutional design, power imbalance, symbolic performativity, and imaginaries of security. Ultimately, this research contributes to ongoing debates on democratic accountability and suggests paths for studying and enhancing civil society's impact on intelligence accountability and policy-making processes.