What should fiscal councils do?

Calmfors, Lars; Wren‐Lewis, Simon

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0327.2011.00273.x

Cited by 132 publications

(106 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…IFCs would have a remit to highlight broken commitments, unsound policies and missed targets. The rationale being that the scrutiny provided by IFCs would dis-incentivise elected officials from providing overly optimistic assessments of the fiscal policy for short term electoral gain [53]. Subsequently, the transparency that is hoped IFCs provide over the political cycle, would discourage any opportunistic pre-election tax give-aways or spending sprees, improving democratic accountability and realigning policy makers and the wider publics' expectations as to what constitutes a sustainable fiscal policy [68].…”

Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Continued concerns over government debt suggested that in addition to formulating better rules, more could and should be done to ensure the transparency and accountability of fiscal policy [68]. In part drawing on the precedent of independent central banks operating in the domain of monetary policy, proposals were made for the establishment of a new wave of IFCs tasked with improving policymakers' incentives to opt for sound fiscal policies and avoid deficit bias [53,69].…”

Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of governmental and non-governmental agencies provide forecasts and provide assessments of government programmes. What distinguishes IFCs is that they possess macroeconomic competence, are independent from the political system, and arguably, most importantly for the purposes of this paper have a clear watchdog function that includes assessing the long-term sustainability of fiscal policy [53]. At the time of writing, there are 39 national IFCs recorded in 37 countries [54] and the number is expected to continue to rise.…”

Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Proposals for the establishment of IFCs focus on the benefits that independent and transparent assessments and forecasts can bring to policy making [66,73]. The forecasts undertaken by IFCs can take several forms and functions, in part depending on the nature and relation to other government agencies responsible for forecasting [53]. IFCs in the Netherlands and the UK have a remit to produce the official economic and fiscal forecasts used by governments.…”

Section: Forecastsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

Connor

2017

Eur J Futures Res

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The aim of this paper is to review the rationale, nature and operation of independent fiscal councils (IFCs) in order to gain insights into how futures are being configured at executive levels of government and to examine how futures could be incorporated in policy making. The emphasis IFCs have placed on non-partisanship, transparency and forecasting is viewed as reflecting a particular understanding of the problem of public debt and a limited understanding of the future and policy making. Located within the context of increasing technocratic tendencies, it is argued that IFCs can be seen as part of efforts to secure the depoliticisation of policy making. Attempts to secure the de-politicisation of policy making may at best, be considered laudable, but naïve, and at worst, represents an ideological sleight of hand in attempts to colonise the future. Moving forward, it is argued that strategic foresight can make a vital contribution to an open form of policy making that deepens and extends an understanding of what the future could be -the necessary ficta of policy making.

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Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Independent Fiscal Councils (Ifcs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Forecastsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

Connor

2017

Eur J Futures Res

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“…In fact, before the 2008 financial crisis, even 44 times (out of 177 possible occasions) the deficit or debt ceilings were breached with relative impunity (Calmfors Wren-Lewis, 2011), leaving in consequence SGP's bounding capacities with little credibility.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

European integration, social democratic Europeanism and the competitiveness discourse: a neo-Poulantzian approach to discursive policy analysis

Miró

2017

Palgrave Commun

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This article addresses the so-called institutional deficit in poststructuralist discourse theory by articulating a recent development of such a theory, the so-called discursive policy analysis as mainly elaborated by David Howarth and Jason Glynos, with neoPoulantzian state theory, especially as re-worked by Bob Jessop. It then employs the resulting framework for analysing the internal socio-political logic of the European integration process, and asks why this process has not been challenged by any robust counter-hegemonic alternative despite the regressive consequences that its neo-liberal design has triggered. The argument developed in the article is that the increasing support of European social democracy, once Euro-critical, to the European project played a crucial role in this development. Nevertheless, such a thesis raises the following research question: how the forces leading the European integration process were able to gain and maintain the active support of European social democracy to that process despite the lack of opportunities for social democratic policies at the EU level? To address this question, the article engages with the main policy proposals developed by the European social democratic parties between the mid-1980s and early 2000s, paying special attention to the impacts of these proposals on EU's institutional architecture. The textual analysis of both the social democratic and EU policy discourses reveals that the widespread appeal of a narrative structured around the "empty signifier" of "competitiveness" served to integrate the social democratic identity within the neo-liberal integration project, organizing a range of discursive logics that successfully marginalized critical worries about European integration. Nevertheless, the article ends by hypothesizing that the technocratic mode of European integration that this historical development has instituted, constitutes the main condition of possibility for the current emergence of Eurosceptic populist forces throughout the EU, so that in the medium term the neo-liberaloriented European construction might lead to the destablization of the very foundations of the European order.

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Budgetary Institutions

Raudla¹

2019

Encyclopedia of Law and Economics

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What should fiscal councils do?

Cited by 132 publications

References 49 publications

An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

An examination of independent fiscal councils and their orientation to the future and policy making

European integration, social democratic Europeanism and the competitiveness discourse: a neo-Poulantzian approach to discursive policy analysis

Budgetary Institutions

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