Responsive regulation in practice: Now available as open access paper

Published in 1992, the book Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate has become a central work in the canon of regulatory scholarship. The book is a collaboration between Professors Ian Ayres (Yale University) and John Braithwaite (Australian National University), and builds on Braithwaite’s earlier studies on regulation, enforcement and compliance. Responsive regulation is probably best … Continue reading Responsive regulation in practice: Now available as open access paper

Exploring issues about regulation – chapter review of the book Regulatory Delivery (on intervention choices)

In November 2019, Professor Jeroen van der Heijden reviewed briefly the book Regulatory Delivery: Introducing the Regulatory Delivery Model, Graham Russell and Christopher Hodges, editors, (2019), Hart Publishing Oxford, 504 pages. This article is the fifth of a series of brief reviews of chapters from that book. The chapter reviews outline the key themes of … Continue reading Exploring issues about regulation – chapter review of the book Regulatory Delivery (on intervention choices)

Responsive Regulation (5): Ethical and epistemic challenges

To conclude this review of the literature on responsive regulation, I will zoom in on ethical and epistemic challenges. In other words, is it proper for governments to base their regulatory responses on the actions of their targets? Is this not violating the assumption that like-cases should be treated alike? To what extent (and how) … Continue reading Responsive Regulation (5): Ethical and epistemic challenges

Responsive regulation (3): Examples

In the previous blog post on the evolution and success of the ideas underpinning Responsive Regulation, I have summed up responsive regulation as a set of heuristics and a set of strategies. Perhaps the best-known heuristic is the notion of escalation from less-intrusive to more-intrusive regulatory responses if non-compliance is found. Likewise, maybe the most … Continue reading Responsive regulation (3): Examples

Responsive regulation (2): Evolution and success

It is not easy to capture the essence of responsive regulation[i]: “Responsive regulation is not a clearly defined program or a set of prescriptions concerning the best way to regulate. (…) Responsiveness is rather an attitude that enables the blossoming of a wide variety of regulatory approaches [none of which are the] optimal or best … Continue reading Responsive regulation (2): Evolution and success

Responsive regulation (1): A review of the international academic literature

Previously, we have explored how insights from the behavioural sciences, insights from studies on risk, and ideas on systems thinking can help the development and practice of regulatory governance. Over the next weeks, we will look at one of the significant regulatory theories that have dominated discussions on good regulation since the 1990s: responsive regulation. … Continue reading Responsive regulation (1): A review of the international academic literature