The Democratic Politics of Monetary Policy (or lack thereof) - Dr Leah Downey
The power to create and disseminate money is both a constitutive power of the state and, under the contemporary regime found in most developed western nations, explicitly insulated from democratic control. To better understand this state of affairs the course will explore canonical themes from democratic theory—accountability, legitimacy, and power—in the context of contemporary monetary policy. We will examine the tension between bureaucracy and democracy, consider justifications for central bank independence, and interrogate the relationship between accountability, transparency, and democratic power.