Building Responsive and Responsible Financial Regulators in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is the front-line regulator of broker-dealers in the United States. FINRA is not the self-regulatory organization some imagine it to be. A self-described ‘independent’ regulator, FINRA is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that wields considerable control over the daily activities of its member firms, their employees, and the investors they serve. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the governmental regulator of the securities markets – oversees FINRA, but FINRA enjoys considerable independence. On the one hand, its governance structure means that it is not accountable to the industry it regulates in the way an SRO would be. On the other hand, FINRA's broad governmental powers are not paired with the public accountability measures to which governmental regulators are subject. Concerns about FINRA's lack of accountability loom even larger as FINRA seeks to regulate additional facets of the financial markets such as investment advisers and securities markets. Policymakers should reconsider its growing role in light of its lack of accountability to the industry it regulates and to the public it is supposed to serve. The chapter proceeds as follows. Part 1 discusses the history and responsibilities of FINRA and its predecessor the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). Part 2 discusses FINRA's current functions. Part 3 sets forth the structure of accountability within which FINRA operates. Part 4 compares the mechanisms by which governmental regulators are held accountable to the public with FINRA's accountability structure. Part 5 discusses recent changes in FINRA's focus and aspirations. Part 6 concludes with a recommendation that FINRA's role in the regulation of the U.S. securities markets be reconsidered in order to achieve more effective and accountable financial regulation. THE EMERGENCE OF FINRA FINRA, which was formed in 2007, was built upon a long tradition of self-regulatory organizations (SROs) in the securities industry. FINRA's predecessor, the NASD, joined the ranks of SROs in the late 1930s. Self-regulating securities exchanges were already the industry norm when Congress created the Depression-era federal securities framework. They regulated member conduct and market activity and set standards for listed companies. The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) recognized and relied on exchange SROs, such as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), to continue performing these regulatory functions.

The Role of Civil Society in EU Financial Regulation

‘The interests of European investors, consumers and SMEs,must be at the centre of the reform’.(European Commission, 4 March 2009)

Civil society is non political sphere and individual made voluntary organization widely understood as the space outside the family, market and state. It is associated for welfare of state on the ground of civic knowledge, civic education and civic virtue. Civil society works and plays its role in the democratic regime. Democratic regime operates on the basis of democratic norms and values. Civil society plays roles in the democratic society relating to maintaining, promoting and strengthening good governance. It plays various roles like participating, mediating interest, mobilizing counter knowledge, influencing policy making, building commitment for public good, giving impetus to community building projects, motivating citizens, government towards co-operation, etc. It can play the communicative role, protective role, control role, socialization role, service delivery role and the global citizenship role in different cases. Major areas of good governance are democracy, rule of law, proprietary rights, corporate governance, human rights, welfare state and labor institution. And in these areas civil society can perform their respective roles. In the case of Nepal some roles have been managed under constitution and statutory law mainly in good governance operation and management act. But these provisions seem inadequate for showing their role visibly. Maintaining good governance through properly implementing fundamental rights, government has not made effective laws yet. Nepalese parliament has promulgated the act named good governance operation and management act 2008. Here some provisions relating to civil society's role in operating and managing process has been mentioned. In this article constitutional role as well as legal role has been taken in due consideration because civil society's constitutional and legal roles have not been duly recognised yet. Thus the study has given emphasis on description and analysis of content relating to civil society 's role managed under the constitution and statutory law act. To draw the conclusion in this study descriptive-analytical and content analysis methods has been used and information has been taken from secondary method. constitution of Nepal and good governance operation and management act 2008 have been taken as major contents for analysis of civil society's role in managing and operating good governance in Nepal.

In a democratic country, civil society will develop and grow strongly. The state as an integration of political power, is the main organization of political power. Also, the state is a tool of society that has the power to regulate human relations in society and regulate the symptoms in society. Good governance can also be interpreted as a synergic and constructive relationship between the state, the private and the civil society. This study aims to find out and understand how is the relationship of the roles of both civil and private society in order to achieve good governance. In this research applied the civil society, state theory, the concept of good governance, and the concept of decentralization theory. The results that the relationship of the roles, both civil and private society can be seen through building democratic governance through the role of civil society, social and political participation in decentralization. Local governments in Indonesia, through a decentralized system, have enabled the rapid development of democracy. Thus, democratic governance depends on how much civic engagements are.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of the civil society during the Catalan political process (2012–2021). In a context of a huge political polarization of the Catalan society, we would like to focus on the influence and role of the organized civil society in the political decisions during this period. The methodology used in this paper is based on a qualitative research using in-depth interviews with Catalan spin-doctors, participant observation, and study cases. In the paper, we can prove that the role of the organized Catalan civil society was fundamental to understand some of the decisions taken by the Catalan government, such as the consultation of ninth of November 2014; the referendum of first of October 2017; the proclaim of the Catalan Republic; the demonstrations against de verdict of the Spanish Supreme Court; the pressure of the civil society to boost pro-independence Catalan political parties to continue with a separatist agenda after the 2021 elections; and the following negotiation process with the Spanish government. As far as the findings is concerned, it is important to underline how the Catalan civil society have used different ways to organize themselves and mobilize their followers. We will comment the effectiveness of social networks; how these groups have converted themselves in actors of the political digital conversation; and how they have been able to modify the political agenda and have impacted in the media agenda setting. This paper contributes to understand more effectively the important role of the organized civil society in the Catalan political process and emphasizes its political role and influence. So do, we are able to suggest future political scenarios that could have an important impact on the political polarization that currently affects Catalonia.

This paper discusses if and how deliberative practices may spill over from EU specialised and strong publics, in which deliberation is intense but with little reflection in general debates, to the general publics of the European Union. The distinction between different sectors of the public sphere pays attention to deliberative practices in “sectors” such as the dialogue between the institutions and civil society associations or “comitology committees” that are usually overlooked in debates on the EU public sphere. The extent to which practices in these areas constitute a form of deliberation has been discussed with different judgements. This paper considers such debate and tries to discuss deliberative practices as a way of extension of European general publics. The analytical framework of this paper is the burgeoning recent literature on the role of organised civil society in the democratic development of the EU. The paper builds on the theoretical framework on the role of European civil society in the legitimacy of the EU. This paper intends to offer an answer to the question “Can specialised publics deliberation increase awareness and debate on EU issues among the general public in Europe?” by analysing policy oriented deliberation in epistemic communities and in the relationships between the institutions of the EU and European civil society. The hypothesis is that this process is possible but unlikely, since the relation of the EU Institutions with each “sector” of the public sphere produces different kind of legitimacies. The method for testing such hypothesis involves a comparison of the outcome of consultations in different policy sectors. The notion of an EU public sphere divided in different sectors with different kind of orientations is analysed firstly. Next, the paper raises the issue of the possible contradiction in the behaviour and aims of the civil society actors engaging in specialised publics, paying particular attention to consultation practices. Then follows a discussion about deliberative practices taking place in the EU publics, an example being epistemic communities formed by EU officials and civil society associations; Finally, the possible extension of deliberation and the role that strong publics can play on it are discussed. The main finding is that the extension of deliberative practices to general publics is unlikely in the present situation, because 1. Deliberation in epistemic communities is rather an exception 2. The Commission still sees specialised and general publics as pertaining to different forms of legitimacy 3. The topics addressed in specialised publics are of great concern for civil society actors but they are difficult to communicate to general publics since they belong to “low politics” 4. Civil society actors could play a very important role in linking both spheres, but this challenges their practices in specialised publics.

Baluchistan is crucial for Pakistan’s progress and development both in terms of international projects and natural resources. Since the inception, Baluchistan is under ethnic nationalism which creates hurdles in the works. In this study the concept of ethnic nationalism and role of government and civil society will be addressed to comprehend the real issue in order to provide candid suggestions for the solution of the problem. The ethno-symbolist nationalism theory will be applied to comprehend the Baluchistan’s ethnic nationalism and the role of government and civil society. Besides, secondary sources have been consulted to address the issue qualitatively. As a result, the Baluchistan’s ethnic nationalism creates hurdles owing to the negligence of government in terms of unequal distribution of the resources and massive human rights violation in the province. Furthermore, the role of civil society and the elites of Baluchistan are also not up to the mark. Henceforth, these factors further contribute to exacerbate the crisis in the province. For the solution of the issue government needs to extirpate the above mentioned hurdles on the priority basis.

There has been a recent evolution in the relationship between modern monetary policy and central banking, visible in the now merged study of public economic choices made every day and the features of monetary architectures and institutions. Though previously separate focuses, these are now accepted by academic scholars and policymakers to be two critical areas that are intrinsically linked.

The European Securities and Markets Authority: Accountability Towards EU Institutions and Stakeholders

In this article the frames of democratic global government, which determine the role of a global civil society as an alternative of market-driven globalization, are being analyzed. With this intention the main theories of international political economy – hegemonic stability theory, complex independence theory, new multilateralism, and also the comparison of the approaches to the potential possibilities of strengthening of the role of civil society in the system of global government are being examined.In order to create the necessary framework for democratic global governance in the twenty-first century, global and national civil societies must enter into more intensive synergies with individual national states and international organizations. Therefore, the article aims to define the role of global civil society in the project of global democratic governance as an alternative to market-driven globalization and to consider the main theories of international political economy by comparing their approaches to the potential opportunities of civil society in the global governance system.The article concludes that, based on the definition of opportunities for expanding the role of civil society in global governance, the theory of complex interdependence and the new multilateralism offer the most appropriate theoretical framework for examining the contribution of civil society in removing the tensions generated by globalization. One can talk about the expansion of the role of civil society in global governance, as the growing presence of social movements and non-governmental organizations on the global scene has become visible due to their activities in the areas of services, education, and protection of rights that contribute to the development of a global cooperative system.

Mapping the substance of the EU's civil society support in Central Asia: From neo-liberal to state-led civil society

Why do business leaders, senior politicians and civil servants move to leading positions in EU civil society? The article addresses this question through thirteen unique life-work history interviews with leaders of some of the most prominent EU civil society organisations (CSOs). Inspired by sociological approaches in EU civil society research, the article combines insights from the literature on EU lobbying and CSO professionalisation with the Bourdieusian concept of capital to explore the specific social resources that EU civil society and individual elite actors gain through the process of boundary crossing. It shows how EU civil society gains predominantly cultural capital (organisational and procedural knowledge), social capital (professional and personal networks), and symbolic capital (status and publicity), while individual elite actors gain primarily a form of civil society-specific symbolic capital that is associated with the alleged goodness of civil society and the act of ‘doing good’ that might facilitate policy influence. The article provides original, first-hand insights into how the civil society sector seeks to strike a balance between passion and professionalism and raises important normative questions about the integration of elites across economic, political, and civil society fields in Brussels.

ABSTRACTThe expectations for the role of civil society are growing due to an abysmal record of high-level political leadership in reaching an agreement and a sustainable peace process. How much impact can civil society have and what roles can it take in the peace process? This case study of South Korean civil society shows how the civil society was able to bridge the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the Korean conflict with the support of a global civil society, and created a hospitable public atmosphere for the peace process in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the space for the civil society to make a contribution in the Korean peace process required the interdependency of the roles of high-level and civil-society leadership in the interplay between the international and domestic political environments. The peacebuilding role of South Korean civil society demonstrates that the horizontal capacity of civil society alone cannot guarantee a breakthrough and sustainability in a peace process, but if it is coordinated with the vertical capacity, civil-society peacebuilding can be a useful platform for sustainable peacebuilding.

This rapid review focuses on the role of civil society in SSR in several contexts. It finds that donor driven SSR is seen to have failed to include civil society, and that such efforts have been focused on training and equipping security forces. However, in some contexts, donors have been able to successfully develop civil society capacity or engage civil society groups in reforms, as in Sierra Leone. There are also several examples of security and justice reforms undertaken by local popular movements as part of regime change, namely Ethiopia and South Africa. In other contexts, such as Indonesia, the role of civil society has led to partial successes from which lessons can be drawn. The theoretical and empirical literature attributes several potential roles to civil society in SSR. These include making security and justice institutions accountable, mobilising a range of social groups for reform, publicising abuses and advocating for reform, offering technical expertise, and improving security-citizen relations. The literature also points to the inherent difficulties in implementing SSR, namely the entrenched nature of most security systems. The literature emphasises that security sector reform is a political process, as authoritarian or predatory security systems are usually backed by powerful, skilled and tenacious vested interests. Dislodging them from power therefore requires significant political will – civil society can be one part of this. The evidence base for the topic is relatively thin. While there is much literature on the theory of SSR from a donor perspective, there are fewer empirical studies. Moreover, scholars have identified relatively few successful examples of SSR. The role of civil society is found to be greater in more economically developed countries, meaning there is less discussion of the role of civil society in many African SSR contexts, for example (except to note its absence). In addition, most research discusses the role of civil society alongside that of other actors such as donors, security services or political elites, limiting analysis of the specific role of civil society.