Dorothee Riese
Das Geheimnis in Krisenzeiten.
Geheimhaltungssphären bei der Umsetzung des Europäischen
Stabilitätsmechanismus
http://research.uni-leipzig.de/leus...-Riese-Das-Geheimnis-in-Krisenzeiten.pdf"Summary
Secrets are characterized by two opposing claims: secrecy and disclosure. In democracies secrets need to be justified, for example with regard to privacy, state security or efficiency of decision making. The latter leaves most discretion to executives and points to an underlying paradox of secrecy in democracies: In order to attain a specific goal it might be necessary to take decisions secretly and thereby without parliamentary debate and approval. (Financial) Crises, it is argued here, are exemplary for this paradox. As financial crisis policies aim at the stabilization of “the markets”, they rely heavily on secret decision-making to avoid escape reflexes. The chapter examines the parliamentary debates in the German Bundestag on the implementation of the European Stability Mechanism. The analysis concentrates on how the limits and necessity of secrecy are negotiated between the executive and the parliament. Thus the chapter i.a. contributes to the discussion on executive-driven European integration as well as to the debate on the impact of the crisis on the balance between executives and parliaments, between secrecy and openness."
