Effective Regulation: A General
Theory of Regulation
Dr Donald Feaver and Dr Benedict Sheehy
General Theory of Coherent Regulation
•
Nature of regulatory problems
•
Overall structure of regulatory systems
•
Nature and role of coherence
•
Coherent Systems Approach
1. Problematisation: organising problem
2. Framing and policy
3. Structure
4. Substantive
5. Compliance
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Regulation
• Regulation is controversial
– Effort to change human behaviour is usually controversial
– Conflicting ideas of rights and duties
– Conflicting ideas of role of government
– Complexity in ideas of problems
– Complexity in social living
– Lack of clarity between political and technical aspects of regulation
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Regulation: Defined
• Regulation is a political response of government
– Invokes the tools of government (authority, treasure and organisation)
“carrots, sticks and sermons”
– To solve a problem or create an opportunity
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Regulation: Organising Problem
• Regulation is NOT
– Simple command and control with respect to risks
• Regulation is a response to:
– Socially constructed and identified phenomena
• Where
– Attention drawn to phenomena
– Powerful people agree:
– 1) that it is an issue;
– 2) that a response is desirable; and
– 3) that a regulatory response is desirable
• Such socially constructed phenomena that has attracted attention for which
regulatory response may be called is referred to as the “Organising Problem”
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Regulation: Organising Problem
• Types of organising problems
– Social, collective problem
– Risk
– Opportunity
• Some aspect of 1 or more
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Organising Problem: Normative issues
• What should be done?
• Why should something be done?
– Why not leave it?
– Moral imperative:
– “we should protect our society/ people” or
– “we should ensure people have the opportunity” or
– “there is an opportunity for our society if…and we should…”
• What are the implications of these norms?
– Normative: Political—norm explication and consensus
– Positive: Regulatory—development of a regulatory system coherent with
the norms
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Political Dimension
• Politicians
– Decide whether to regulate
– Frame the organising problem: collective problem, risk, opportunity
– Frame the normative dimension on the basis of the framing of the problem
– Mobilise political support
– Create policy
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Politics and Cultural Dimension
• Full understanding of the problem is difficult. Therefore:
– Rely on cultural evaluation of events
– Rely on experts, but not all
– People who we can trust—people like ourselves in worldview
– culture, politics and economics
– Different from our view is “dirty” and “immoral” (Douglas 1966)/ positive =
normative
• We select for regulatory attention—i.e. construct organising problems—
according to our worldview
– Seek to reflect and reinforce worldview (Douglas and Wildavsky 1990)
Culture and Cognition
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Positive Dimension
• Technical issues
– Structural layer
– Substantive layer
– Operational layer
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Structure
• Control structures
• Centralised
• De-centered
• Distributed
• Delegated and Private
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Structure
• Accountability mechanisms
• Government
• Judicial Review
• Markets and managers
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Substantive Coherence
• Governance mechanisms
– Functions
– Jurisdictional authority
– Powers
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Operational Coherence
• Compliance
– Cognitive compliance
– Explicit aspects of compliance
• Enforcement
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• Thank you
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