On Keeping Promises

Abstract

A collection of articles based on three lectures given at a seminar arranged by Norges Bank and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The articles were published in Nytt Norsk Tidsskrift 1/2009 (in Norwegian) under the heading "Symposion: On keeping promises". Only minor revisions have been made in the English translation. A seminar entitled "On keeping promises" was hosted by Norges Bank and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on 11 November 2008. In modern political science, this topic has been analysed as the "Odysseus motive" in Jon Elster's seminal work Ulysses and the Sirens (1979): Odysseus let himself be bound to the mast to prevent him from being seduced by the song of the sirens. Elster's theory has inspired Francis Sejersted in his interpretation of the Norwegian state as a constitutional democracy, with predictability as an essential element. In his introduction, Deputy Governor Jan F. Qvigstad discusses the dilemmas facing monetary policy from the same perspective. Qvigstad's lecture and commentaries by Endre Stavang and Henrik Syse are included here, followed by Francis Sejersted's concluding remarks on the dilemmas of binding.