From Global Goals to Public Accountability Ecosystems: A Comparative Study of National Parliaments

Governance by goal-setting has become a widespread trend in global policy-making. There is, however, a lack of effective international instruments to hold governments accountable for their commitments under global goal-setting agreements. This makes national-level public accountability central, with parliaments at the heart. Yet, significant gaps remain in research on the global-national accountability nexus. Therefore, this project explores parliamentary engagement in holding governments accountable with regard to global goals. We focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address the question: Why, how, and with what consequences for accountability do national parliaments engage with the SDGs? Using a qualitative comparative research design, we investigate parliamentary SDG engagement in three countries with varying degrees of democratic governance: Sweden, Argentina, and India. The methodology includes process-tracing, expert interviews, online surveys, and thematic analysis of policy material documenting parliamentary processes and relations with other actors. This allows us to identify the drivers, forms, and consequences for government accountability of parliamentary engagement with the SDGs. The results underpin the theoretical development of our concept of public accountability ecosystems at the global-national nexus. The project thereby advances research on public accountability at a time when democratic values are challenged worldwide.