Reconceptualising de facto autonomy: Unpacking multi-actor influence and variation across policy areas?

Abstract

The literature on regulatory agency de facto autonomy used to focus primarily on the interactions between regulatory agencies and/or the 'principal' and the regulatee. Recent studies have shifted our focus on the identification of other stakeholders (e.g., peer regulators, co-regulators, civil society organisations) and attempted to measure their influence over de facto autonomy. Despite the richness of the current debate, it is necessary to unpack the nature of such influence and how and why these a multitude of stakeholders can (and do) exert influence on de facto autonomy, and whether, and how their influence shape regulatory policies while enabling or constraining de facto autonomy. Additionally, recent studies on de facto autonomy tend to treat de facto autonomy at the policy sector level. However, de facto autonomy can vary across policy areas even within the same policy sector. In this sense, we need to unpack the sources and mechanisms of such variation, and how and why such variation shapes the regulatory policy process and its output (i.e., policy (in)action) across policy areas. While addressing these main gaps in the recent literature on de facto autonomy, this panel aims to address the following non-exhaustive list of questions: Whether, and if yes, how and why does de facto autonomy vary across policy areas? How and why do other stakeholders (e.g., peer regulators, co-regulators, civil society organisations among others) influence de facto autonomy? How do regulatory agencies respond to the role and influence of such stakeholder engagement? Which factors structure the regulatory policy process and regulatory agencies fail (or succeed) to enjoy a high level of de facto autonomy? How can we measure de facto autonomy and its variation across policy areas?

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