The European System of Central Banks: An Autonomous Actor?

With the communitarisation of monetary policy and the establishment of a European Central Bank (ECB), the idea of insulating a central bank from political process was realised to a degree yet undreamed of. The result, the asymmetric construction of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), makes it difficult to democratically legitimise the exercise of power by the autonomous actor ECB. In this regard, EMU can be conceived as a parable for the respective difficulties of the European Union. As a still rare example for combination of juridical and economic point of view, this volume makes this challenge subject of discussion. By means of comparison with the American central banking system, the book probes the ECB's institutional design, attempts to define the ECB's status in EMU, and looks for ways towards a more democratically legitimated economic and monetary policy.