The Regulatory State

Abstract

Recently, there has been a discernible shift towards a regulatory mode of governance. This innovation has inspired commentators to talk of the emergence of ‘the regulatory state’, a distinctive style of governance which they see evolving throughout the industrialized world (Majone, 1994; Majone, 1996; McGowan and Wallace, 1996). In examining this trend, we must first try to identify this phenomenon. By ‘regulation’ we mean the attempt to modify the socially-valued behaviour of others by the promulgation and enforcement of systems of rules, typically by establishing an institutionally distinct regulator (Selznick, 1985; Ogus, 1994; Daintith, 1989). The increasing use of regulation as a formal instrument of government may thus arise because of the growing need to ‘steer’ the behaviour of a variety of actors — both public and private — who operate at some remove from the central state (Osborne and Gaebler, 1993). This certainly has occurred in the UK and the trend seems to be a consequence of certain basic changes in the role and structure of government.