IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v53y2005i1p82-99.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Monomaniacs or Schizophrenics?: Responsible Governance and the EU's Independent Agencies

Author

Listed:
  • Garrath Williams

Abstract

This paper examines the creation of independent agencies within the EU, such as the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Central Bank (ECB). Majone and others have argued the case for European regulatory agencies. Such agencies can provide for continuity, expertise, accountability and effective authority – in short, an institutionalisation of responsibility. Against this optimism, I argue that a dilemma of institutional design naturally arises from the agencies’ situation in the EU. On the one side, we risk creating powerful agencies that institutionalise monomania– that is, agencies that single‐mindedly and all‐too‐effectively pursue narrow agendas, inadequately checked by other bodies. On the other, we are also likely to encounter relatively impotent agencies which institutionalise schizophrenia– that is, agencies that must scout around for audience and support, and hence are unable to act effectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Garrath Williams, 2005. "Monomaniacs or Schizophrenics?: Responsible Governance and the EU's Independent Agencies," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 53(1), pages 82-99, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:53:y:2005:i:1:p:82-99
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00518.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00518.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00518.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Edoardo Chiti, 2002. "Decentralised Integration as a New Model of Joint Exercise of Community Functions?," ARENA Working Papers 31, ARENA.
    2. Giandomenico Majone, 1996. "Temporal Consistency and Policy Credibility: Why Democracies Need Non-Majoritarian Institutions," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 57, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    3. Neyer, Jürgen, 2000. "The Regulation of Risks and the Power of the People: Lessons from the BSE Crisis," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 4, May.
    4. Ellen Vos, 2000. "European Administrative Reform and Agencies," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 51, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    5. Abraham, John & Lewis, Graham, 1999. "Harmonising and competing for medicines regulation: how healthy are the European Union's systems of drug approval?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(11), pages 1655-1667, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Graber, Petra, 2006. "Ein Subsidiaritätstest – Die Errichtung gentechnikfreier Regionen in Österreich zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit," ITA manu:scripts 05_02, Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chris Hanretty & Christel Koop, 2013. "Shall the law set them free? The formal and actual independence of regulatory agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 195-214, June.
    2. Lars P. Feld & Stefan Voigt, 2004. "Making Judges Independent – Some Proposals Regarding the Judiciary," CESifo Working Paper Series 1260, CESifo.
    3. Mattia Guidi, 2015. "The Impact of Independence on Regulatory Outcomes: the Case of EU Competition Policy," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(6), pages 1195-1213, November.
    4. Abels, Gabriele, 2002. "Experts, Citizens, and Eurocrats Towards a Policy Shift in the Governance of Biopolitics in the EU," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 6, December.
    5. Miriam Aparicio, 2022. "Resilience: A “Psychosocial†Competency and Its Role in the Pathways of University Students in Intercultural Research (Pre and Post-COVID19)," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies Articles, Revistia Research and Publishing, vol. 8, ejis_v8_i.
    6. Fenton Villar, Paul, 2020. "The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and trust in politicians," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    7. Nick Manning & Geoffrey Shepherd, 2009. "Arms Length Bodies," World Bank Publications - Reports 10521, The World Bank Group.
    8. Andrés Pavón Mediano, 2020. "Agencies’ formal independence and credible commitment in the Latin American regulatory state: A comparative analysis of 8 countries and 13 sectors," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(1), pages 102-120, January.
    9. Dreher, Axel & Voigt, Stefan, 2011. "Does membership in international organizations increase governments' credibility? Testing the effects of delegating powers," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 326-348, September.
    10. Stefan Voigt, 2020. "Mehr Mut in der Rentenpolitik! Ein Vorschlag [More Courage for Pension Policy! A Proposal]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 100(4), pages 294-299, April.
    11. John M. de Figueiredo & Edward H. Stiglitz, 2015. "Democratic Rulemaking," NBER Working Papers 21765, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Feick, Jürgen, 2002. "Regulatory Europeanization, national autonomy and regulatory effectiveness: Marketing authorization for pharmaceuticals," MPIfG Discussion Paper 02/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    13. Szajkowska, Anna, 2009. "From mutual recognition to mutual scientific opinion? Constitutional framework for risk analysis in EU food safety law," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 529-538, December.
    14. Andreas Eriksen, 2021. "Political values in independent agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 785-799, July.
    15. Edoardo Mollona & Guglielmo Faldetta, 2022. "Ethics in corporate political action: can lobbying be just?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(4), pages 1245-1276, December.
    16. Koop, Christel & Scotto di Vettimo, Michele, 2023. "How do the media scrutinise central banking? Evidence from the Bank of England," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    17. Carolyn Hendriks, 2009. "Policy design without democracy? Making democratic sense of transition management," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 42(4), pages 341-368, November.
    18. Johannes Pollak, 2004. "Democracy and the European Constitution: Majority Voting and Small Member States," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0019, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    19. Voigt, Stefan, 2005. "Membership has its Privileges: On the Effects of Delegating Powers Internationally," Volkswirtschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 73, University of Kassel, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    20. Mattia Guidi, 2011. "Does Independence Affect Regulatory Performance? The case of national competition authorities in the European Union," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers 64, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:53:y:2005:i:1:p:82-99. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.