Aim, Central Claims and Structure of the Book

Abstract

Most research concerning regulation of the utilities sector concentrates on the creation of new institutions (that is, independent regulatory agencies, referred to in this book as IRAs) in the liberalization process (Künneke et al., 2009) or focuses attention on the autonomy or independence of those sectoral IRAs, but without considering the wider context and interaction with other regulatory actors (Coen and Thatcher, 2008, constitute a notable exception). In this book, the concepts of ‘independence’ and ‘autonomy’ of IRAs are used interchangeably, implying that here both concepts are considered to be similar in meaning. However, given the complexity of regulation in practice and the number of organizations involved, highly independent regulatory agencies must increasingly share their decision-making power with regulatory actors.