O’Toole’s (1997a) networked bureaucratic world raises important questions regarding
our understanding of bureaucratic politics, governance, and accountability. Do these networks threaten democracy or enhance it? Should expectations of accountability and oversight be changed as the result of acknowledging that so many actors are involved in bureaucratic decisions? How do agencies wield political power in these networks? Some recent research has identified a “dark side” of networks—that network managers respond to elements of the network that are more politically influential, and thus the result is that networks may actually exacerbate already present inequality (O’Toole and Meier 2004). This raises important and disturbing questions about the nature and implications of the political power in networked administration. Other concerns, as addressed in Chapter 5, involve the “hollowing out” of the state.