Regulation and its modes: the European experience

There is a general trend in Europe, both at the national and Community level, toward greater specialization and institutionalization of regulatory functions. This essay presents three different but related sets of reasons that help to explain the rise of the regulatory state in Europe, and even why regulation seems to be becoming the new frontier of public policy and administration. A first set of reasons has to do with the failure of nationalization as a mode of regulation and the process of privatization, which have led to new regulatory bodies. The second set of factors, related to the increasing complexity and internationalization of the tasks facing policy makers, has led to new or stronger regulatory bodies at the Community level. The third set has to do with the role of the European Community as an independent “fourth branch of government” for the European nations. This latter trend has some problems, as the lack of transparency of the decision-making process. However, this problem can be solved. Moreover, the explanations for the rise of independent regulatory agencies echo many characteristic themes of the politics of efficiency, being recently rediscovered. The conviction that policy should be right, rather than the result of group struggle, leads to demands that policymakers should combine technical expertise and public deliberation to achive decisions that are substantively correct and politically legitimated.