The governance of territories has become increasingly fragmented and complex, challenging the accountability arrangements for “governable spaces.” Tension between central and local governments is a perennial feature of their relationship, but few analyses have explored the implications of this tension for accountability relationships. This article assesses policy initiatives within England aimed at increasing accountability in localities, by establishing governable spaces that include territorializing, mediating, adjudicating, and subjectivizing. During the 2010s, the UK government sought to introduce a form of place-based accountability within the context of reduced central government funding to English local authorities. This meant that local government faced new forms of accountability while adapting to considerable financial shocks. Accounting methods—assessing what phenomena can and should be governed—underpin audit and orthodox concepts of accountability in the United Kingdom. These have driven a narrow finance-focused narrative of local audit and local accountability. However, we also argue that developments in England in the 2010s have undermined political accountability in the localities, because they have worked against critical components within it for making governable space auditable: interpretation of data, judgments on service quality and the impact of cross-public sector relationships on local authorities’ “decision space.”

中文翻译：

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审计可治理空间——英格兰基于地方的问责制研究

领土的治理变得越来越分散和复杂，对“可治理空间”的问责安排提出了挑战。中央和地方政府之间的紧张关系是其关系的一个长期特征，但很少有分析探讨这种紧张关系对问责关系的影响。本文评估了英格兰旨在通过建立包括领土化、调解、裁决和主观化在内的可治理空间来增强地方问责制的政策举措。2010 年代，英国政府试图在中央政府向英国地方当局提供的资金减少的背景下引入一种基于地方的问责制。这意味着地方政府在适应巨大的金融冲击的同时面临着新形式的问责。会计方法——评估哪些现象可以和应该受到治理——支撑着英国审计和正统的问责概念。这些推动了地方审计和地方问责制的狭隘的、以财务为中心的叙述。然而，我们也认为 2010 年代英格兰的发展削弱了地方的政治问责制，因为他们与其中的关键组成部分合作，使可治理空间可审计：数据解释、对服务质量的判断以及跨公共部门关系对地方当局“决策空间”的影响。