The Constitutional Status of the European Central Bank and Its Economic Consequences

Zusammenfassung

Two distinct and mutually conflicting weltanschauungen seem to have inspired the construction of the European Community since its earliest beginning. The first is the direct descendant of the theoretical reflexions and of the institution building which took place in the western countries during and after the first world war. It was centred on the concept of market failure and attempted to find ways to face what was considered the bankruptcy or at least the severe shortcomings of the laissez faire model in dealing with problems of mature capitalist economies. The second, on the contrary, is an equally direct descendant of laissez faire theory. It sees the unfettered working of free markets for goods, capital and labour as the highest aspiration of appropriate policy-making The actual realisation of the EC through the integration process set in motion by Franco-German reconciliation (with the protracted and forceful help of U.S. authorities) takes place, from the start in the name of the double ideal of „positive“ and „negative“ integration