New theoretical approaches to the state have posed challenges for the comparative analysis of the organizational features of states. The analysis of state bodies and state agencies has largely been confined to the sub-discipline of public administration, and has been resistant to the systematic...

Internal and external pressures are constantly stimulating adaptation of core characteristics and norms of democratic government. In this paper, drawing on the Irish experience, we wish to consider how systems of democratic accountability have responded to fragmentation of government caused by...