Suchergebnisse

Both proponents and detractors of central bank independence (CBI) view granting central bank independence as a domestic decision made for domestic economic reasons after domestic political consideration. However, postcommunist independent central banks began their lives burdened with a dual democratic deficit. Not only were they predominantly developed by and for international actors, but this rapid process occurred without building significant domestic support for these institutions. This paper explores the problematic implications of this democratic deficit and discusses how central banks might be better incorporated into democratic polities without compromising their countries' economic health.

The recent student and staff protests in Amsterdam and at other Dutch universities have brought to light fundamental disagreements about the future of the Dutch university. Many students and staff members of Dutch universities have argued that the level of democratic decisionmaking about central policy issues in universities should be increased. But what can democracy mean in the context of the contemporary university system? In this contribution we will first briefly sketch the public role of the university. Then we will put forward our main claim, that the Dutch university currently suffers from a triple democratic deficit: in the relation between society and the university, in the relation between university administration and the academic community, and in the relation between the academic community and society. We can only make progress by considering these three problems of democratic legitimation in their mutual relations.

In this paper we study the existence of a democratic deficit in intermunicipal cooperation in the Netherlands and the effect of the structure of intermunicipal cooperation on democratic quality. We study both direct effects and indirect effects through the cultural climate of cooperation. Rival hypotheses from monocentric (Regional Reform) and polycentric (New Regionalist) theories are put to the test using data from all Dutch municipalities. Our findings are mixed. In terms of a democratic deficit, the general conclusion is that, as far as the representative institutions are concerned, there is little evidence of a systematic deficit. Citizens and organizations are however to a large degree dependent on their representatives to have any influence in IMCs. With regard to the effects of structural complexity, our findings are mixed. Both rival theories find only limited support in the data. For the legal regime, we find weak support for the monocentric position.

Centralling tendencies in a European Union must be resisted by strenthening th role of the EC members' national parliaments.