IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/reggov/v1y2007i1p8-26.html

Regulatory regimes and accountability

Author

Listed:
  • Peter J. May

Abstract

This research considers accountability issues for new forms of regulation that shift the emphasis from prescribing actions to regulating systems or regulating for results. Shortfalls at various levels of accountability are identified from experiences with these regimes in the regulation of building and fire safety, food safety and nuclear power plant safety. These experiences illustrate how accountability shortfalls can undermine regulatory performance and introduce a potential for subtle forms of regulatory capture. These concerns underscore the importance of finding the right fit between regulatory circumstances and the design of regulatory regimes.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter J. May, 2007. "Regulatory regimes and accountability," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(1), pages 8-26, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:1:y:2007:i:1:p:8-26
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-5991.2007.00002.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2007.00002.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2007.00002.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hood, Christopher & Rothstein, Henry & Baldwin, Robert, 2004. "The Government of Risk: Understanding Risk Regulation Regimes," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199270019.
    2. Jacint Jordana & David Levi-Faur (ed.), 2004. "The Politics of Regulation," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3167.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stig S. Gezelius, 2026. "Administrative Sanctions and Loose Legal Norms: Resistance and Street‐Level Policy Reversal in Norway," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 734-748, April.
    2. Yue Guo & Tianhao Zhai & Hao Huang & Luozhong Wang, 2025. "Problem exposure and problem solving: The impact of regulatory regimes on citizens' trust in regulated sectors," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 21-38, January.
    3. Walter G. Johnson, 2023. "Caught in quicksand? Compliance and legitimacy challenges in using regulatory sandboxes to manage emerging technologies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 709-725, July.
    4. Lihi Lahat, 2020. "Changing Expectations? The Change in the Role of the Welfare Ministry in the Regulation of Personal Social Services," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 691(1), pages 153-173, September.
    5. Linda Moberg & Mio Fredriksson & Karin Leijon, 2023. "Explaining variations in enforcement strategy: A comparison of the Swedish health care, eldercare, and compulsory school sector," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 1041-1057, October.
    6. Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy & Gail Pacheco & Kade Sorensen, 2018. "Land Use Regulation, the Redevelopment Premium and House Prices," Working Papers 002, University of Auckland, Economic Policy Center (EPC).
    7. Renato L. P. Chaves & Emmanuel B. Raufflet, 2025. "Taking Stock of Ethics and Compliance Programs as Anticorruption Mechanisms: An Integrative Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 199(4), pages 819-837, July.
    8. Graham Spinardi, 2019. "Performance‐based design, expertise asymmetry, and professionalism: Fire safety regulation in the neoliberal era," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(4), pages 520-539, December.
    9. Matías Dewey & Donato Di Carlo, 2022. "Governing through non‐enforcement: Regulatory forbearance as industrial policy in advanced economies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 930-950, July.
    10. Sherrill Shaffer & Jason Shogren, 2008. "Infinitely repeated contests: How strategic interaction affects the efficiency of governance," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 2(2), pages 234-252, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emmanuelle Mathieu & Koen Verhoest & Joery Matthys, 2017. "Measuring multi‐level regulatory governance: Organizational proliferation, coordination, and concentration of influence," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(3), pages 252-268, September.
    2. Paul Roness & Koen Verhoest & Kristin Rubecksen & Muiris MacCarthaigh, 2008. "Autonomy and Regulation of State Agencies: Reinforcement, Indifference or Compensation?," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 155-174, June.
    3. Gary Lynch-Wood & David Williamson, 2014. "Civil Regulation, the Environment and the Compliance Orientations of SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 467-480, December.
    4. Anna Gurinskaya & Mahesh k. Nalla, 2018. "The Expanding Boundaries of Crime Control: Governing Security through Regulation," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 679(1), pages 36-54, September.
    5. Manuela Moschella & Eleni Tsingou, 2013. "Regulating finance after the crisis: Unveiling the different dynamics of the regulatory process," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(4), pages 407-416, December.
    6. Graham Smith, 2009. "Citizen oversight of independent police services: Bifurcated accountability, regulation creep, and lesson learning," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(4), pages 421-441, December.
    7. Magnus Hörnqvist, 2015. "Regulating business or policing crime? Tracing the policy convergence between taxation and crime control at the local level," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 352-366, December.
    8. Alexandra Revez & Jose A Cortes-Vazquez & Stephen Flood, 2017. "Risky policies: Local contestation of mainstream flood risk management approaches in Ireland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(11), pages 2497-2516, November.
    9. Benjamin van Rooij & Rachel E. Stern & Kathinka Fürst, 2016. "The authoritarian logic of regulatory pluralism: Understanding China's new environmental actors," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 3-13, March.
    10. Mirko Noordegraaf & Janet Newman, 2011. "Managing in Disorderly Times," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 513-538, May.
    11. Sandra Eckert, 2018. "Two spheres of regulation: Balancing social and economic goals," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(2), pages 177-191, June.
    12. Julien Etienne, 2015. "Different ways of blowing the whistle: Explaining variations in decentralized enforcement in the UK and France," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(4), pages 309-324, December.
    13. Onyeka Osuji, 2011. "Fluidity of Regulation-CSR Nexus: The Multinational Corporate Corruption Example," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 31-57, September.
    14. Aven, Terje & Renn, Ortwin, 2018. "Improving government policy on risk: Eight key principles," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 230-241.
    15. Johanna Karolina Louise Koehler, 2023. "Not all risks are equal: a risk governance framework for assessing the water SDG," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 179-189, June.
    16. Simon Dietz & Alec Morton, 2011. "Strategic Appraisal of Environmental Risks: A Contrast Between the United Kingdom's Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and its Committee on Radioactive Waste Management," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 129-142, January.
    17. Olga Minchenko, 2014. "Comparative analysis of the mechanisms of the involvement of experts and expert organizations in Russian and foreign practice (The example of some supervisory functions of the state)," Public administration issues, Higher School of Economics, issue 4, pages 136-152.
    18. Eyert, Florian & Irgmaier, Florian & Ulbricht, Lena, 2018. "Algorithmic social ordering: Towards a conceptual framework," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 48-57.
    19. Edmund Malesky & Markus Taussig, 2019. "How Do Firms Feel About Participation by Their Peers in the Regulatory Design Process? An Online Survey Experiment Testing the Substantive Change and Spillover Mechanisms," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 4(2), pages 129-150, June.
    20. Åsa Boholm & Hervé Corvellec & Marianne Karlsson, 2012. "The practice of risk governance: lessons from the field," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:reggov:v:1:y:2007:i:1:p:8-26. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1748-5991 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.