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27 - Regulation

from Part II - Modalities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2025

Richard Bellamy
Affiliation:
University College London
Jeff King
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Regulation is a pervasive feature of contemporary capitalism. How to ensure, in democratic states, that those to whom regulatory power and functions have has been delegated act in line with constitutional norms and values is a perennial, and much explored, question. This chapter seeks to do two things: first to set out a framework for analysing regulatory systems, and second, to use that framework to explore how constitutional actors seek to regulate, or more specifically to constitutionalise, the regulators they have created. In using a regulatory framework to analyse this element of constitutional systems, it thus proposes to ‘flip’ the usual perspective, and not just look (down) at regulatory systems from a constitutional perspective, but also look (up) at constitutions from a regulatory perspective. This flipped perspective will be used to conceptualise constitutions not from the starting point of established constitutional, legal or political theory but from a particular regulatory theory, that of decentred or polycentric regulation, and to explore the different ways in which ‘regulators are regulated’ through the interplay of the constitutional governance system with the regulatory systems it creates: through the goals and values each seeks to pursue, the techniques, organisations and individuals through which each acts, the particular sets of ideas or cognitive and epistemological frameworks those actors bring, and with a continual need both for, and in constant pursuit of, trust and legitimacy in the eyes of those on whose behalf they purport to govern.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Recommended Reading

Baldwin, R., Cave, M., & Lodge, M. (2010). Oxford Handbook of Regulation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, R., Cave, M., & Lodge, M. (2012). Understanding Regulation: Theory, Strategy, and Practice, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harlow, C. & Rawlings, R. (2021). Law and Administration, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordana, J., & Levi-Faur, D., eds. (2004). The Politics of Regulation: Institutions and Regulatory Reforms for the Age of Governance, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, S. & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How Democracies Die, New York: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Lewis, M. (2018). The Fifth Risk: Undoing Democracy, UK: Penguin.Google Scholar
Majone, G. (1994). The Rise of the Regulatory State in Europe. West European Politics, 17 (3), 77101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (2018). Regulatory Policy Review, Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Scott, J. C. (1999). Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R. (2001). Institutions and Organizations, 2nd edn, London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches. The Academy of Management Review, 20 (3), 571610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Regulation
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.030
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  • Regulation
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.030
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Regulation
  • Edited by Richard Bellamy, University College London, Jeff King, University College London
  • Book: The Cambridge Handbook of Constitutional Theory
  • Online publication: 27 March 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108868143.030
Available formats
×