Workshop: Can the EU learn from the US or Canada?
Luiss University will organise a workshop on executive accountability and lessons from the EU and Canada on 31 January 2022.

The aim of the workshop is to compare the EU with two federal polities – the US as a federal union and Canada as a federal state – in order to understand the nature of executive accountability in these three political systems. We are particularly interested in how each political system’s patterns and processes of differentiation shape and condition the prospects for executive accountability. Lack of accountability is associated with dominance, understood as arbitrary and illicit rule, whereas an executive that is subject to democratic control and authorization is democratically legitimated. Account-making is a vital prerequisite for proper accountability: we need a viable account to relate to if we are to render explicit the conditions under which differentiation is conducive to democracy and when it is not. Equally, we need to specify what qualifies as an EU-account in order to render clear how and in what sense we can compare federal systems such as the U.S. and Canada with the EU.
Programme
09:00 |
Opening statement
|
09:15 |
The macro-level perspective: executive vs. juridical vs. expertocratic accountability in the EU
Chair: Sergio Fabbrini, Luiss University |
11:00 |
Coffee break |
11:15 |
The micro-level perspective: executive accountability in the adoption and implementation of different EU policies
Chair: Mark Thatcher, Luiss University |
13:00 |
Lunch |
14:00 |
The comparative perspective: executive accountability in consolidated federations
Chair: John Erik Fossum, ARENA Centre for European Studies |
15:45 |
Coffee break |
16:00 |
Executive accountability and the link between differentiation, democracy and dominance: what can the EU learn from the US, Canada and Germany?
Chair: Bruce Cain, Stanford University |
17:45 |
End of event |
If you have questions about the event, contact Tiziano Zgaga