LIST OF PANELS

Over the last two decades, studies of regulation in general, and regulatory agencies and regulatory instruments in particular, have gained currency among international public policy scholars (Baldwin et al., 2010; Levi-Faur, 2011; Lodge and Wegrich, 2012). In developed countries, debates on topics such as regulatory quality, regulatory impact assessments, and the reputation and independence of regulatory agencies are frequent in the literature (Radaelli and De Francesco, 2007; Dunlop and Radaelli, 2016; Bianculli et al., 2015; Coglianese, 2017). Regulation is becoming ever more central to public policymaking in almost any policy area, from competition policy to artificial intelligence, with environmental regulation, industrial safety, utilities regulation and many other policy fields in between. 

In developing and transitional regions, such as Latin America, these topics have also attracted attention from scholars (González, 2017; Pavón, 2018; Elizondo and Dussauge-Laguna, 2018).Most regulatory debates, however, still focus on questions such as whether the "regulatory state" and "regulatory capitalism" are useful conceptual devices (Jordana and Levi-Faur, 2015); or on whether administrative legacies and political conditions are conducive to credible regulatory arrangements (Lodge et al., 2017). There are still significant concerns over the relationship between regulation and development, either on the effect of regulations on national development, or about how existing institutions condition the development of effective regulations (Dubash and Morgan, 2013; Cunha et al., 2017). At the same time, regulatory innovations, toolkits, and "best practices" are being actively diffused by international organisations and scholars.  

The design and implementation of regulation and regulatory institutions is particularly challenging in developing and transitional settings due to enduring national features, such as low accountability and trust, widespread corruption and state capture, limited bureaucratic professionalisation, and strong pressures from interest groups. Therefore, certain political and administrative conditions that are present in developed countries, such as the rule of law, regulatory capacity, and high levels of regulatory compliance, may not fully (if at all) exist in developing and transitional countries.

This panel seeks to broaden our understanding on how regulation and regulatory institutions are designed and implemented in developing and transitional settings. We want to explore to what extent theoretical and analytical advances in the field of regulation are helpful to explain regulatory transformations in non-developed political systems. Similarly, we also look for ongoing research that contributes to theoretical developments, showing how the study of regulatory experiences in developing countries may inform wider international debates. 

References:  

Alejandra Elizondo & Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna (2018), La Agencia de Seguridad, Energía y Ambiente: una nueva institución del Estado mexicano, CIDE-ASEA-PIRCE.

Andrea C. Bianculli, Xavier Fernández-i-Marin & Jacint Jordan (2015), Accountability and Regulatory Governance, Palgrave.

Andrés Pavón (2018), “Agencies’ formal independence and credible commitment in the Latin American regulatory state: A comparative analysis of 8 countries and 13 sectors”, Regulation & Governance, early view. 

Bruno Queiroz Cunha, Ana Karine Pereira & Alexandre de Ávila Gomide (2017), “State capacity and utilities regulation in Brazil: Exploring bureaucracy”, Utilities Policy, 49.

Camilo González (2017), “Measuring and comparing the distribution of decision-making power in regulatory arrangements of the telecommunication sector in Latin America”, Utilities Policy, 49.

Cary Coglianese (ed.) (2017), Achieving Regulatory Excellence, The Brookings Institution Press.

Claire A. Dunlop & Claudio M. Radaelli (2016), Handbook of Regulatory Impact Assessment, Edward Elgar.

Claudio M. Radaelli & Fabrizio de Francesco (2007), Regulatory quality in Europe, Manchester University Press.

David Levi-Faur (ed.) (2011), Handbook on the Politics of Regulation, Edward Elgar.

Jacint Jordana & David Levi-Faur (2005), “The Diffusion of Regulatory Capitalism in Latin America: Sectoral and National Channels in the Making of a New Order”, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences.

Martin Lodge & Kai Wegrich (2012), Managing Regulation, Palgrave.

Martin Lodge, Christian Van Stolk, Julia Batistella-Machado, Daniel Schweppenstedde y Martin Stepanek (2017), Regulation of logistics infrastructure in Brazil, RAND.

Navroz K. Dubash & Bronwen Morgan (eds.) (2013), The Rise of the Regulatory State of the South, Oxford University Press.

Robert Baldwin, Martin Cave & Martin Lodge (eds.) (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Regulation, Oxford University Press.

Regulation, regulatory agencies and regulatory instruments are becoming extremely relevant in developing countries. We welcome paper proposals that either use existing theoretical debates and analytical frameworks to study the experience of regulation in developing settings, or use empirical experiences from developing countries to broaden international debates on subjects such as:

a. The diffusion of the “regulatory state” and “regulatory capitalism” models across developing regions

b. The design and implementation of regulatory tools, such as risk management, performance-based regulation, regulatory impact assessment, inspection                  toolkit, or algorithms

c. The measurement of regulatory agencies’ independence

d. The study of reputation in regulatory agencies

e. The analysis of capture in regulatory policy making

f. The spread of better regulation policy agendas

g. The processes through which alleged “best practices” are adopted and adapted

h. The place that accountability and conflicts of interest have in regulatory processes

i. The importance of emerging methodologies and techniques, such as crowd sourcing, social engagement, or artificial intelligence

We welcome qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, historical, and comparative studies that touch on one or more countries, one or more policy areas, and one or more regulatory agencies or instruments.   

In addition to our panel discussions, we will discuss with participants the potential publication of revised versions of the papers in the form of an edited collection and/or a special journal issue.