Commentary: Governance of and Through Central Banks: A Comparative Analysis at the Close of a Dismal Decade

Abstract

This commentary seeks to summarize, assess, and make integrated sense of three scholarly works that, together, help to shed light on the discussion regarding central banks’ scope, mandate, power, and independence. The issue is clearly relevant in comparative politics as one building block to evaluate both state capacities to manage the domestic economic environment routinely and the global crises faced recently. Within a period of 13 years, central banks across the world were at the center of the response to two different but highly devastating crises. The level of power enjoyed nowadays by central banks is, to a large extent, an outcome of the evolution following the 2008 crisis, which better equipped these institutions to provide some necessary economic policy interventions in 2020. The articles here reviewed are fine contributions to empirical observation and future research in this area.