Monogioudis, G; (2015) Tracing public accountability in Serbia: the ombudsman institutions in search of allies. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis focuses on ombudsman institutions in order to explore public accountability in post-transition Serbia. Despite the revived interest of academics and policy-makers in the acknowledgement and assumption of responsibility by state authorities in new democracies, accountability remains a vague concept as a consequence of the prevalence of normativism and determinism in the relevant literature and a general lack of empirical research. Public accountability is therefore operationalised in this research project as a process of successive phases in which accounting actors such as ombudsman institutions undertake the role of resolvers of disputes between citizens and state authorities. This thesis examines the involvement of ombudsman institutions in the above process by looking at two interrelated factors that impact upon their effectiveness as accounting actors: institutional design and networking. Based on document analysis of annual reports and interviews with various stakeholders in Serbia my research shows that accounting agencies such as ombudsman institutions compensate for their institutional deficiencies by using resources which they exchange while interacting with other state and social actors. In particular, their noninstitutionalised interactions with civil society organisations and the media arguably have the potential to improve the efficiency of triadic dispute resolution through informality. In short, this thesis looks at the institutional design of eleven ombudsman offices in Serbia at the national, regional and local levels and employs network theory in order to examine the intensity and content of their interactions with state and social accounting actors. By exploring the dynamics of these interactions, this thesis illuminates the context in which state authorities and public officials under scrutiny account for their decisions or actions.

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