Legitimacy, effectiveness, and efficiency of the ICN

Abstract

This chapter assesses how the International Competition Network (ICN) performs in terms of legitimacy, effectiveness, and efficiency. It recognizes that power must always be exerted in the interest of the people, following the democratic principle. It also addresses the questions of whether the procedures used by national competition authorities (NCAs) to join the ICN take democratic bodies’ input into account and whether national democratic bodies scrutinize what their NCAs do within the ICN. The chapter describes the different ways of legitimizing processes, implying that one’s view of legitimacy links to one’s model of democracy. It examines a select sample of NCAs that complied with their national rules when setting up and participating in the ICN.