Monocratic cybersecurity in the EU member states: insights from Italy, France, Germany and Spain

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the interplay between the development of cybersecurity policies and one of the major transformations underway in contemporary democratic regimes, i.e. the gradual shifting of power and decision-making authority from parliamentary assemblies towards national governments and prime ministers. The study relates the structure of cybersecurity governance in the four major EU member states (i.e. France, Germany, Italy and Spain) to the rise of the monocratic government, meant as a political process affecting the relationships both between executive and legislative powers, and between public authorities and private interests. The analysis shows how monocratization affects national cybersecurity policies in contemporary Western democracies, albeit to varying degrees in the four Eu member states. Furthermore, the analysis emphasizes the role of cybersecurity policymaking as a driver of monocratization, which is gradually expanding the power of prime ministers at the expense of parliaments.

KEYWORDS:

• Cybersecurity policy
• monocratization
• EU members states
• cybersecurity agencies
• public-private partnerships
• cybersecurity certification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Official websites include https://www.normattiva.it for Italy, https://www.boe.es for Spain, https//legifrance.gouv.fr for France, and https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/index.html for Germany.

2 Regarding the French case, posts by both the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister were considered, given to the particular two-tier form of the government enshrined in the French constitution.

3 Translated by authors. Giuseppe Conte Facebook post of Apr. 16, 2019, available at: https://www.facebook.com/GiuseppeConte64/photos/a.385574775257827/607648919717077/?type=3

4 Translated by authors. Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón Facebook post of Apr. 9, 2019, available at: https://www.facebook.com/pedro.sanchezperezcastejon/videos/1993782010750512/

5 Translated by authors. Emmanuel Macron Facebook post of Nov. 10, 2022, available at: https://www.facebook.com/100044157757824/posts/692614048887181

6 Giuseppe Conte was not prime minister anymore at the time of the Russian invasion.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Italian Ministry of Research under PRIN [grant number: MIUR 2017RFS2JY] – ‘Monocratic government. The impact of personalization on contemporary political regimes’.