Occasionally, citizens'' expectations from local authorities are expressed through behaviors which are not consistent with, and at times contradict, the objectives of current policy or regulation, i.e., non-compliance. Insofar as regulation is vague, local authorities are challenged to respond to these citizens'' expectations within the limits of current regulation objectives. Regulation, which is designed by local authorities as a temporary attempt to respond to citizens'' expectations that are non-compliant with current regulation, is termed as ''street-level regulation'' in this study. Street-level regulation conceptualizes a typology of responses mapped along two dimensions: active vs. passive, and enabling vs. preventive. Four patterns of response prototypes are identified: resistance, support, indirect influence, and looking the other way. Street-level regulation is further elaborated based on two case studies. One case is known worldwide and refers to the well publicized increasing rate of non-immunization of toddlers. The second case study refers to the growing numbers of dissatisfied parents in Israel who "start up" schools despite the absence of a legal mechanism enabling this kind of initiative. Based on interviews with local authority bureaucrats and informed by concepts of "scientific citizenship" and "citizens'' involvement," the concept of street-level regulation is further discussed based on the following questions: (i) What are the various prototypes of response of local authority when citizens'' demands reflect non-compliance? (ii) Which considerations and motivations determine the response which is chosen? And (iii) what policy tools are available for street-level regulation? Preliminary results indicate that street-level regulation is essentially a contextual construct of the local bureaucracy, made up of the confluence of local authority considerations, motivations and willingness to meet citizens'' demands. Similar to street-level bureaucracy, street-level regulation, emphasizes the significant and unique role that street-level bureaucracy plays, especially when current regulation is vague.
