The Politics of Regulatory Governance

The Section on The Politics of Regulatory Governance brings together panels and papers that focus on the political dynamics of regulatory governance, broadly defined. Regulation – which involves the use of rules to intervene in the activities of specific categories of economic, political or social actors – has become an increasingly prominent tool of governments, international organisations and transnational business and civil society groups. Whilst sometimes presented as purely technical, regulatory processes are highly political, involving ideas and interests, winners and losers, and battles for influence. These political dynamics not only affect the legislative rule-making process, but they also characterise the policy process in insulated regulatory agencies, and even judicial processes. This Section seeks to improve our insight into these political dynamics, whether in economic or social regulation, in government or self-regulation, and at the national or international level. The questions addressed might, for instance, include the following: How and to what extent do businesses influence the design and implementation of government regulation? Do multinationals usually get what the want from the regulatory process? What role do participatory and consultation processes play? How are national and transnational self-regulatory initiatives established, and can they ever be effective? What variation can we observe in political control and accountability, and why? How to regulators seek to uphold and improve their reputation, and how do different reputational strategies perform? Under what conditions gets expertise contested, and what do conflicts over expertise look like? And what are the sources of power in the increasingly important international regulatory networks? The Section is also particularly open to contributions that focus on changes in regulatory governance under the influence of political and public pressure. For instance: What form have these pressures taken, and how have the pressures been translated into regulatory changes by politicians and regulatory agencies? How has public salience affected the regulatory process, and how and when can citizens influence regulatory governance?