The Demand for Accountability and Public Fragmentation

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the debate about public demand for government accountability is misguided. Currently, it is too focused on inquiring whether the public expects too little or too much accountability from the government. Instead, public demand for accountability should be explored through the lens of public fragmentation. The chapter summarises the diverse scholarship on public fragmentation. It suggests that the public is fragmented because of party de-alignment, modernisation, marketisation and the mutually opposing forces of globalisation and decentralisation. The main implication is that the notion of the diversity of the public challenges the principle of the aggregation of preferences.