Transparency, Accountability, and Global Governance
Abstract
Abstract Observers often cite transparency as a response to the accountability concerns of global actors, but how disclosure and openness actually affect the behavior of international organizations, transnational corporations, and nation-states remains theoretically and empirically under-specified. This article identifies three forces—market pressure, external discourse, and internal norms—that can have a regulatory effect on global actors who make their actions transparent. It also highlights the limitations of such accountability tools and stresses the need for an accounting actor, typically civil society, to bring them to bear. The article then considers the implications of transparency-based accountability for larger questions of global governance, especially its potential to create the kind of nonterritorial, problem-based polities that scholars have called for to address problems that transcend national boundaries.
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Transparent decision-making encourages stakeholder participation and a feeling of ownership.
“It encourages participation by stakeholders and a feeling of ownership as well34–36.”
From A decision-support framework for evaluating AI-enabled ESG strategies in the context of sustainable manufacturing systems (2025) · cites this paper as [35]
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Dingwerth, K., & Eichinger, M. (2010) · Global Environmental Politics · doi:10.1162/glep_a_00015 · Cited by 234 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Hale, T. N.
- Corresponding author
- Hale, Thomas N.
- ORCID
- Hale, Thomas N.
- Venue
- Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations
- Publisher
- Walter de Gruyter GmbH
- Published
- 2008-08-12
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 73-94
- ISSN
- 1075-2846 (ISSN-L)
- 1942-6720
- OpenAlex
- W1892917686
- Cited by
- 254
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 25.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Global Governance A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › International Relations and Foreign Policy
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Globalization and political ideologies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Regulation and Compliance Studies
- Keywords
- transparency, accountability, global governance, disclosure, international organizations, multinational corporations, market pressure, civil society
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