Accountability and transparency in the executive triangle

This paper presents the main concepts and methods used to collect data in Working Group 4 (WG4) ‘Accountability and Transparency in the Executive Triangle’, which is one of four working groups in EU Cost-Action CA22150 Comparative Research on the Executive Triangle in Europe (CoREx 2023). CoREx aims to create a unique pan-European network of researchers studying the relationships of executive politicians, top civil servants, and ministerial advisers -‘the executive triangle’ (Bach and Hustedt 2023)- from an internationally comparative perspective (CoREx 2023). CoREx is organized in four Working Groups (WGs), each contributing to the joint generation of descriptive, conceptual, and evaluative knowledge to answer the Action’s research questions (CoREx 2023: 12).

WG1-The institutional setup of the executive triangle in a comparative perspective.
WG1 provides a comprehensive description of the institutional set-up of the executive triangle in Europe from 2000 until 2023. It primarily contributes to answering RQ1 and will be instrumental for answering RQ3 about the effects of different degrees of politicization.

WG2-Career patterns in the executive triangle.
WG2 lays the ground for comparative research on patterns of politicization based on career data (published CVs, archival data, existing datasets on ministers, media coverage, freedom of information requests). WG2 primarily contributes to answering RQ1 by collecting information on key actors in the executive triangle and to answering RQ2 by developing and operationalizing measures of degrees of politicization related to the backgrounds and careers of top civil servants and ministerial advisers.

WG3-Roles, interactions and impact on policymaking process:
WG3 focuses on the distinct roles and mutual expectations of the different actors in the executive triangle, how they interact in policymaking, and on the consequences of their roles and interactions for the policymaking process. It helps answering RQ1 by generating knowledge about the inner workings of the executive triangle. It also contributes to answering RQ2 by applying joint conceptualizations of politicization in the comparative analysis of executive triangles. Most importantly, WG3 is instrumental in answering RQ3 by generating evaluative knowledge about the impact of different degrees and types of politicization on the policymaking process.

WG4-Accountability and Transparency in the Executive Triangle.
WG4 aims to comparatively map ethical standards, accountability, transparency, as well as scandals and controversies in the ‘executive triangle’ (Bach and Hustedt 2023) of ministers, advisers and senior civil servants in Europe and other national jurisdictions of interest.
The principal aim of Working Group 4 is descriptive (mapping) with a double focus being on:
a) collecting basic regulatory data on triangle ethical standards, accountability and transparency (minimum threshold), and
b) mapping scandals, controversies and misconduct.
The secondary aim of Working Group 4 is twofold:
a) to explain convergence and divergence across jurisdictions, mainly by using politicization as an explanatory factor.
b) to evaluate how accountability works in practice.

The paper is structured as follows. It starts with some contextual information about Working Group 4 including its governance structure. Following this, we present the WG4 members and countries to be investigated. We then proceed with defining executive triangle actors. Following this the paper presents the concepts of ethical standards (inc. integrity and conflicts of interest), accountability, transparency and scandals along with the type of data that will be collected and how.

The rest of the paper is divided in two parts that reflect the two different research designs implemented to collect and analyse data across the sub-groups. Part I focuses on mapping ethical standards (inc. integrity and conflicts of interest), accountability and transparency and suggests regulatory analysis. Part II presents the mapping of scandals involving executive triangle actors and suggests a media analysis of longitudinal and cross-sectional data. The document concludes with a discussion of potential deliverables coming out from this research.