The regulatory reform of the decade of the 1990s provided evidence of deep transformations in Brazilian institutions. With the creation of regulatory agencies, new regulating governance was established in the country, delegating powers for the regulation of sectors fundamental for citizens to autonomous entities. With the inclusion of new actors within the regulatory environment - national and international firms, new users, investors, etc - mechanisms for maintaining transparency and accountability became necessary. Based on these transformations, I examine the role played by the Federal Court of Auditors ( Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU) as an institution for horizontal accountability in controlling regulatory agencies. I analyze Auditors Court rulings, employing both documentary research and qualitative interviews with institutional actors who are involved in the field I am looking at. I argue that the way in which the Court of Auditors (TCU) performs serves to increase the legitimacy of autonomous agencies, to the extent that the decision-making process becomes more transparent and democratic. From the user's point of view, I conclude that the power of sanction of the Auditor's Court has contributed to a more balanced relationship between users and authorities, while taking increased citizens' demands within the regulatory arena into account. This article is divided into four sections. In the first section, I discuss the position of the Federal Auditors Court within current Brazilian regulatory arrangements and present my working hypotheses. In the following section, I engage in discussion of the major arguments within the literature on the delegation of powers and horizontal accountability. In the third section, I present my research design as well as the methods used in this study. Finally, in the fourth section, I analyze the discourse of three selected rulings, in order to test the hypotheses presented in the first section.
Horizontal Accountability; Regulatory Agencies; Decision Making Transparency; Delegation of Powers; Federal Auditors Court
