Reconciling Independence and accountability at the European Central Bank: The false promise of Proceduralism

This article revisits the balancing act between independence and accountability at the European Central Bank (ECB). It contrasts procedural and substantive concepts of accountability, and challenges the mainstream idea that independence and accountability can be reconciled through narrow mandates, the indiscriminate increase of transparency, the creation of multiple channels of accountability, and the active use of judicial review. These assumptions form the pillars of a procedural type of accountability that promises to resolve the independence/accountability dilemma but fails to do so in practice. The article brings evidence to show how ECB accountability has become a complex administrative exercise that focuses on the procedural steps leading up to monetary and supervisory decisions while simultaneously limiting substantive accountability. The failure to acknowledge the trade‐off between independence and accountability (said to be ‘two sides of the same coin’) has resulted in a tendency to privilege the former over the latter.     

The Eurogroup,power and accountability

This article considers the role of the Eurogroup in EU decision‐making, a topic that is under‐theorised, more especially given its importance in the overall EU schema. The Eurogroup's power has grown very considerably, largely because of the enhanced role that it has been accorded as a result of the financial crisis, with the result that its power no longer accords with the Treaty provisions that specify its function. The article sets out the Treaty foundations of the Eurogroup, examines its role in EU decision‐making, the rationale for its increased power, and the extent to which it is politically and legally accountable.     

Comparing U.S. and European police subcultures: A field study

This article is a satire of sociology and field anthropology research on comparative police behavior; it uses humorous anecdotes to make a serious point. The author argues that until police supervision is undertaken by civilian review boards, police behavior will never conform to community morality despite attempts at police reform. To support this argument, the author compares U.S., German, Italian, Russian, and French police subcultures in an attempt to calculate (a) the correlation between police behavior and its conformity to community morality, and (b) whether a high correlation results from a high degree of civilian oversight. The author concludes that, because no country has appreciable civilian oversight, and because the police of no country conform to community morality, there is therefore a perfect correlation between lack of civilian oversight and lack of police conformity to community morality.     

Strategies of police cooperation: comparing the Southern Chinese seaboard with the European Union

A number of police cooperation strategies have developed around the Southern Chinese seaboard, which encompasses the coastal provinces of Mainland China, Taiwan, and the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Cooperation mechanisms in the region encompass intelligence sharing strategies and establishment of the Electronic Communal Information Sharing Platform (ECISP), common investigations, regular meetings, practitioner exchanges, and training. Although conducted on a regular basis, these cooperation strategies mostly lack a formally binding legal basis, relying purely on informal practitioner efforts at best supported by Memoranda of Understanding. Due to their historical independence all police forces involved in cooperation at the Southern Chinese seaboard have had to establish strategies to overcome legal, organisational and cultural differences. This region could therefore be compared to cooperation networks between sovereign nation-states in other regions. The historical development of Greater China’s highly informal, practitioner driven approach to cooperation is reminiscent of early forms of cooperation between the police agencies of states that are now members of the European Union (EU). This paper explores the development of both informal and formal strategies established among police agencies around the Southern Chinese seaboard and compares them with the EU to enhance the historical, political and legal understanding of the two regions.     

The leadership styles of police managers

Leadership involves both the activity and behavior of managers. There are at least six leadership theories, one of which, the personal-situational, has resulted in the development of a number of contingency models of managerial style. The one created by Hershey and Blanchard is used to assess the styles of 155 police managers. Findings of this research indicate that police managers use two or three styles, are as effective as nonpolice managers, and tend to avoid “risky” styles, particularly delegating.     

The importance of police contact in the formulation of youths' attitudes toward police

The central focus of this study was to examine types of contact between adolescents and police as determinants of attitudes toward these authority figures. Three value or group expressive determinants — race, deviance, and parental defiance — were used as control variables to specify conditions under which the importance of actual contact with police is enhanced or diminished. Positive contact with police was found to be predictive of positive attitudes and negative contact was predictive of negative attitudes toward police. Further investigation revealed that the relationship between positive contact and positive attitudes toward police became significantly stronger among youths who had experienced negative encounters with police, as well as among those who reported being frequently involved in deviance, and among those who had been defiant of parental authority. The effects of negative contact with police were most significant among whites, those who report infrequent deviant behavior, and those youths who had experienced little or no positive contact with police.     

The effect of education on police attitudes

This paper examines the effect of education on police attitudes. Although the literature seems to suggest that college-educated policemen will be more tolerant than their non-college counterparts, studies to date are highly ambiguous. The present study examines the attitudes of the members of one police department. Findings from the correlation analysis indicate that the educational level of the police does not significantly affect their attitudes. It is suggested that this is due, in part, to the vocational orientation of many police college students and to be pervasive effect of the police role     

The tactical choices of police patrol officers

This article presents the results of an attempt to describe exhaustively the tactics chosen by police patrol officers when handling highly problematic situations. The observations were made in Denver, Colorado, and focused on domestic disputes and “stops” for violations of motor vehicle regulations. The study determined that thirty-three categories were required to describe adequately what police did in domestic disputes and fourteen for motor vehicle stops. Tactical choices were found to vary according to the stage of the encounter between police and public. Tactics at three stages of encounters— contact, processing, and exit—were mapped and the relations between choices at each stage determined. The article concludes with a brief analysis of the relationship between tactical choices and situational factors.     

The economic effects of judicial accountability: cross-country evidence

Judicial independence is not only a necessary condition for the impartiality of judges, it can also endanger it: judges that are independent could have incentives to remain uninformed, become lazy or even corrupt. It is therefore often argued that judicial independence and judicial accountability are competing ends. In this paper, it is hypothesized that they can be complementary means towards achieving impartiality and, in turn, the rule of law. It is further argued that judicial accountability can increase per capita income through various channels one of which is the reduction of corruption. First tests concerning the economic effects of JA are carried out and on the basis of 75 countries, these proxies are highly significant for explaining differences in per capita income drawing both on OLS as well as TSLS.

Perceived accountability and public attitudes toward local police

Recent national events have brought the issue of police-community relations into the public eye. Even though a large body of academic research exists on the predictors of public attitude toward police, very little is known about how public perceptions of police accountability influence satisfaction with the police. This study seeks to fill that gap by using ordered logistic regression and multi-year community-level survey data from one Western city (n = 3725) to examine the relationship between satisfaction with police accountability and overall attitudes toward the police. The results indicate that respondent satisfaction with police accountability was a strong, consistent predictor of satisfaction with local police, even after controlling for other important variables, such as race/ethnicity and community context. The findings suggest that public perceptions relating to the control of police officer conduct should be considered when assessing the predictors of attitudes toward the police.     

Current developments in police governance and accountability in Ireland

2005 saw the passing of landmark legislation for policing in Ireland??the Garda Síochána Act??which made substantial changes to the structures and operation of governance and accountability. It came on the heels of the greatest scandal ever faced by the Irish police. This paper sets out to assess critically the impact of that legislation. We begin by considering the nature of police reform and the various conditions necessary for successful change. We then contextualise the reforms in Ireland, considering the existing structures of governance and accountability and highlighting the numerous concerns which existed in relation to them. The focus then turns to the Morris Tribunal, which documented gross misconduct and corruption in one Garda division. We examine how this served as a major catalyst for reform in Ireland. The paper then turns to consider the reforms themselves providing an overview of the legislation and critiquing in depth a number of features: the clear centralisation of government control over the police, the limited independence of the new independent police complaints body and the failure to fully embed the reforms in a human rights agenda. We conclude by arguing that insufficient steps have been taken to address police governance and accountability in Ireland and that the best opportunity for such reform may have been missed.     

Democratic accountability and the changing European political order

This article is about democratic accountability and a Europe struggling to find viable answers to the questions of who and what shall constitute “Europe” and how to develop legitimate political institutions for governing it. The article is, nevertheless, first and foremost about political order and change, rules for living together, the role of democratic politics in society and the relations between political organization and civilized coexistence, and the study of the political. Modern democracies live with unresolved conflict, and accountability regimes are part of an institutional arrangement for preserving order and continuity and also for creating dynamics and change. Accountability processes take place within settled and unsettled orders, and they affect and are affected by existing orders. Without denying the importance of contending interests, power struggles, strategic behaviour, non‐cooperative games, and (re)distributional battles, attention is directed towards the search for unity, political cohesion and solidarity based upon the informed voluntary consent of the people through reflection and reasoned deliberation among individuals with different values, interests, understandings and resources.     

The European Union--law, financial institutions and the banking crisis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• Law created by European Institutions affects businessin all areas, none more so than in the financial sector, asthe recent financial crisis has thrown into sharp relief. Notonly the Directives that shape regulation of financial businesses(outside the scope of this article), but some provisions ofthe Treaty, Directives, Regulations and Decisions affect theability of banks to do business, in their dealings with States,as well as in their dealings with commercial customers and eachother.
• Key in the financial crisis have been the Treaty ruleson State aid: these have affected the ability of States to assistfinancial institutions in difficulty and the manner in whichthey give assistance; the recognition of the global financialcrisis as creating a disturbance in the economy of many MemberStates has been central to the swift approval of rescue aidin accordance with new guidance, while reconstruction . . . [Full Text of this Article]