Repoliticising Monetary Policy? The Comparative Political Economy of Independent Central Banking

In recent years, central banks and their actions have been receiving increased public attention. The focus of central banking has long been on providing stability and managing inflation, with a clear separation and independence of political decision-making and policymaking. However, responding to various challenges over the past two decades, including the 2008 global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, changes in the geopolitical landscape, and the imperative to “green” the economy, central banks have expanded the scope of their activities.

The result is that the political significance of central banks’ actions has increased, even as they remain, at least officially, independent. Recent developments in the US underscore how central bank independence has, yet again, become the subject of political contestation. Yet, as the contributions in this thematic issue highlight, the political challenges of politically active, but formally depoliticised, central banks have been felt in many jurisdictions and present a fruitful field of inquiry for comparative political economy.

This issue in particular seeks contributions addressing:

• How independent are central banks in conducting different parts of their policies?
• What explains this more interventionist/political role of central banks in economic policy-making?
• What are the political consequences and normative/institutional implications?
• What role do current developments play regarding increased politicisation and independence?

Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here.