Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each institution to the trade-off it embodies.
- Independent central bank
- Constitutional court
- Fixed presidential term
- Confidence relation in parliamentary systems
- Stability bought at the cost of removing a failed executive
- Rights protected at the cost of majority decision
- Flexibility bought at the cost of governmental instability
- Credibility bought at the cost of accountability
Hints
- Each institution buys something and pays for it in the same currency: control.
- The one that protects rights against majorities is the court.
Show the answer
- Independent central bank → Credibility bought at the cost of accountability
- Constitutional court → Rights protected at the cost of majority decision
- Fixed presidential term → Stability bought at the cost of removing a failed executive
- Confidence relation in parliamentary systems → Flexibility bought at the cost of governmental instability
Why
Framing institutions as trade-offs rather than as good or bad designs is the habit worth taking from this unit. Every one of these arrangements is a deliberate choice to make something harder, and the argument about each is really an argument about which risk a society would rather run.
Practise Institutions and the Distribution of Power
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More questions on Institutions and the Distribution of Power
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