Demokrati och penningpolitik

Sammanfattning: This essay examines the political discussion surrounding the proposal to relinquish the Swedish central bank and monetary policy from democratic control from the vantage point of democratic theory. The reform was proposed in late 1997 and debated twice in 1998. Through the lens of ideal types pertaining to different schools of democratic thought, the discussion is combed for different democratic ideals. The material studied is the governments along with transcripts from parliamentary floor deliberations. The transfer of monetary policy from the popularly elected parliament to a board of experts ties in with a classical faultline in political science, namely between popular or elitist governance. The material, thus, is engaged with the preconception that it will contain expressions of competitive elitist and participatory/deliberative democratic ideals. The findings partly confirm the preconception as expressions of competitive elitism and participatory/deliberative democratic ideals were present. However, they also revealed the existence of ideals reminiscent of protective liberalism.