This book provides the analytical framework for understanding the relationship between media scandals, executive accountability and the crisis of democracy. The empirical findings are based on an original database of 6000 media allegations and investigations in Russia, Germany and Bulgaria. Observations gained from the case studies are then placed in relation to a systematic analysis and critique of more than 100 models of the transformation and crisis of democracy. The book will be of particular interest to researchers focusing on democratic theory and political thought, as well as those working empirically in the field of democratic systems.

Gergana Dimova is Associate Lecturer in Global Politics at the University of Winchester, UK. She previously was a researcher at Harvard University, USA, and Cambridge University, UK. She is the chair of the UK Political Science Association Anti-Politics Group and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society.

Chapter 1. Government Accountability in the Media Age: How to Measure, Explain and Assess It?.- Part I. Explaining Government Accountability: A Model of Supply and Demand.- Chapter 2. The Media Age and Government Accountability: An Ambiguous Relationship.- Chapter 3. Supply of Accountability and the Accountability Turn.- Chapter 4 The Demand for Accountability and Public Fragmentation.- Part II. Evaluating Government Accountability: Methodological Considerations and Empirical Results.- Chapter 5. Accountability and Democracy: An Assessment.- Chapter 6. De-Parliamentarisation of Government Accountability in Germany: Crisis or Transformation of Democracy.- Chapter 7. The Presidentialisation of Government Accountability in Russia: Crisis or Transformation of Democracy?.- Chapter 8. Judicialisation of Government Accountability in Bulgaria: Crisis or Transformation of Democracy?.- Part III. Democracy Analyzed through the Lens of Accountability: Crisis or Transformation?.- Chapter 9. Democracy through the Prism of Accountability: Comparison with Models of the Crisis and Transformation of Democracy.- Chapter 10. Contemporary Models of the Crisis of Democracy: Critical Overview through a Demand and Supply Framework.- Chapter 11. Models of the Transformation of Democracy: Critical Overview through a Demand and Supply Framework.