Administrative innovations and accountability failures: the termination of the Spanish telecommunications agency

García Juanatey, Ana; Jordana, Jacint; Sancho, David, 1964-

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13608746.2017.1345798

Administrative innovations and accountability failures: the termination of the Spanish telecommunications agency

Citation

García-Juanatey A, Jordana J, Sancho D. Administrative innovations and accountability failures: the termination of the Spanish telecommunications agency. South Eur Soc Polit. 2017;22(3):385-404. DOI: 10.1080/13608746.2017.1345798

Abstract

We discuss how far accountability practices may be relevant to the success of independent regulators in countries without a tradition of administrative autonomy. We develop a conceptualisation of agency accountability failures and develop an analytical framework to examine the life and termination of the Spanish regulatory agency for telecommunications, CMT (Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones - Telecommunications Market Commission). We argue that the CMT’s termination was related, among other reasons, to accountability failures in its institutional design. The paper relies on a variety of sources, including legislation, literature, media coverage, and semistructured interviews with agency officials and several stakeholders.