Limits of regulatory responsiveness: Democratic credentials of responsive regulation |
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| Authors: | Seung‐Hun Hong Jong‐sung You |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia;2. Department of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Responsiveness and accountability constitute the process of democratic representation, reinforcing each other. Responsiveness asks elected representatives to adopt policies ex ante preferred by citizens, while accountability consists of the people's ex post sanctioning of the representatives based on policy outcomes. However, the regulatory literature tends to interpret responsiveness narrowly between a regulator and regulatees: the regulator is responsive to regulatees’ compliance without considering broader public needs and preferences. Democratic regulatory responsiveness requires that the regulator should be responsive to the people, not just regulatees. We address this theoretical gap by pointing out the perils of regulatory capture and advancing John Braithwaite's idea of tripartism as a remedy. We draw out two conditions of democratic regulatory responsiveness from Philip Selznick – comprehensiveness and proactiveness. We then propose overlapping networked responsiveness based on indirect reciprocity among various stakeholders. This mechanism is the key to connecting regulatory responsiveness with accountability. |
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| Keywords: | accountability democratic regulatory responsiveness indirect reciprocity overlapping networked responsiveness proactiveness responsive regulation |
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