Too big to be audited? The new world of auditing in international organizations

Within the NPM debate, audit reforms have been largely investigated at the national level. The best-known theoretical approach to approach audit reforms is provided by Michael Power, who suggested the idea of an “audit explosion” and then of an “audit society.” Power draws his insights from cases situated at the national level without explicitly considering international organizations (IOs) as both subject and object of audit reforms, despite their increasing relevance in economy and society. It, therefore, makes sense to consider Power's hypotheses as a starting point for the analysis of audit reforms in IOs to investigate whether the framework has value in studying audit reforms in such organizations. This research adds to the existing body of literature by providing a comparative analysis of audit reforms in six IOs over the course of the past 20 years to shed light on a fundamentally changing method of auditing them

Transnational Associations and INGOs: Macro-Associations

Taking international non-governmental organizations as the key unit of analysis, this chapter outlines the nature and history of transnational voluntary associations since the early nineteenth century before proceeding to evaluate the transformation of their organizational forms in the post-Cold War era and their shifting geographical distribution. It is argued that the traditional hierarchical model of an international organization headquartered in ‘Western’ countries is becoming increasingly challenged by new organizational forms based in multiple regions of the world. The chapter then considers the practices of transnational associations, exploring their advocacy and service roles with particular reference to the mechanisms for evaluating these organizations’ effectiveness in fulfilling these roles. The proposition that transnational associations have contributed towards the development of global civil society and the enhancement of global democracy is then considered, before proceeding to an evaluation of perspectives on their legitimacy and accountability, which have become increasingly central to the research agenda on transnational associations. The chapter concludes by making recommendations for future research into transnational associations