'The rise of regulatory governance has given new salience to the old question 'who guards the guardians?' This volume, with contributions by the best scholars in the field, is a true landmark. It provides the first comprehensive and comparative overview of the state of regulatory accountability in Western democracies.' Mark Bovens, Utrecht University School of Governance, The Netherlands ... Read more 'Clear conceptual thinking about the accountability of regulators is in short supply. This book offers a major remedy. Qualitative and quantitative depiction of variation among states and types of agencies in accountability up, down and horizontally is in even shorter supply. This book again has a remedy on offer. It is a collection of unusual coherence in its focus on fundamental yet neglected questions. A feast of fine authors to devour these challenges'. John Braithwaite, Australian National University, Australia 'How can regulatory bodies conciliate the imperatives of autonomy and accountability? To whom are they accountable, for what, by what means and with what kind of standards? Does accountability in the real world equal their accountability on paper? Combining approaches and methods, this path-breaking collection moves beyond normative considerations and offers a clinical view of the accountability relations of a large number of regulators in several policy sectors, in many countries and in the European Union. Equipped with rigorous conceptual lenses and substantiated with a wealth of data, the contributions elegantly show the astonishing diversity and increasing complexity of accountability regimes. By exploring the impact of the 'regulatory state' on accountabilities this book compellingly identifies some major challenges to the quality of democratic life generated by transformations of governance practice'. Yannis Papadopoulos, University of Lausanne, France Show Less