Regulatory Agencies in Brazil vs. the United States: A Comparative Study

This article describes Brazil’s regulatory agencies compared to the United States, emphasizing their similarities and differences and discussing the Brazilian regulatory agencies in detail. After careful content analysis, key findings pointed out a significant disparity within both countries: while in Brazil, the first regulatory agency was created in 1996 – National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL), in the United States, the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was founded 114 years before, in 1887, evidencing a long tradition and expertise regarding the regulatory environment from the North American agencies. There are currently eleven regulatory agencies in Brazil, while in the United States, there are 47. Different types and functions give North American regulatory agencies a higher level of sophistication than the Brazilian regulatory system, meaning that the Brazilian regulatory framework finds an excellent deal for improvement. One of the implications that compile the current work is the discussion about the existence of a political influence in regulating agencies needing to catch up compared to their American counterparts’ pace of innovation.