Delegation of power

Question 1

Principal-Agent (PA) Theory

• why do the delegate
• why don’t they delegate

Answer 1

A theory to understand relations between ..
1. The delegator (the principle)
2. The delegate (the agent)

Why would principals delegate to agents?
1. To credibly commit to a particular policy: these delegation commitments ty our hands in order to ensure
2. To overcome coordination challenges: we see a delegation when there is a mutually beneficial outcome and avoiding blame from unpopular policies by forcing it decision on someone else e.g. courts

Why would a principle not delegate to a model
1. Shirking: when weak effort by an agent leads to lower performance
2. Policy drift: an agents self-interest leads to policies which diverge from the principles and it becomes difficult to take power away from them

Question 2

Define Constitutionalism

READIN

Answer 2

• Constitutionalism refers to a commitment to be governed by a set of overarching rules and principles laid out in a constitution (Stone Sweet 2000, 20)
• A constitution provides the formal source of state authority
• Almost all current constitutions are codified constitutions in that they are written in a single document. An uncodified constitution is one that has several sources, which may be written or unwritten.
   Only three countries—Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom—have uncodified constitutions
• Constitutions also differ in regard to whether they’re entrenched or not.

Question 3

What are entrenched constitutions

Answer 3

 An entrenched constitution can be modified only through a procedure of constitutional amendment.
 Constitutional amendments require more than the approval of a legislative majority; e.g. legislative supermajorities, popular referendum

Question 4

What are unentrenched constitutions

Answer 4

 Unentrenched constitutions have no special amendment procedures—they can be modified at any point in time by a simple legislative majority just like any other law e.g. UK