One of the key dynamics of contemporary global regulatory governance is the spread of ‘independent’ regulatory agencies across multiple sectors of economic activity. In theory, such agencies provide the core institutional underpinning for a functional economic system, but in being independent from political processes, are able to provide evidence of a ‘credible’ sector to international investors. However, this model is problematic in the context of developing states, where the gap between formal and informal institutions means that the ‘independence’ of such regulatory agencies is difficult to ensure or maintain. Using an example from the energy sector, electricity regulatory authorities, many of the issues and problems with this mode of governance can be examined. The paper argues that in fact an alternative, ‘policy coordination’, model of managing economic processes is more suited to developing states political economies, and in fact more suited to development.
