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[Purpose] To demonstrate the legal viability of regulation and the use by the regulated sector of procedures for the elimination of unstable elements present in mineral waters exploited in Brazil. [Methodology/approach/design] Through a legal and technical-sectoral literature review, using a theoretical-normative approach, from the perspective of the Regulatory State, the article seeks to analyze the compatibility with the Federal Constitution of the position of the former DNPM, which concluded that the use of mineral water treatment methods for removal of unstable elements is illegal. [Findings] In addition to the fact that there is no legal prohibition of such a practice, the Federal Constitution requires the optimal use of public assets, in this case, mineral water deposits, in addition to establishing as guiding principles of the economic order the free enterprise, free competition and consumer protection. [Practical implications] If accepted by the competent regulatory authority, the thesis defended in the present work will allow a more adequate exploration of the mineral water deposits in Brazil, in respect of the constitutional duty of optimizing the use of public goods, at the same time that it will stimulate the development of the respective industry, the expansion of industry competition and the defense of consumer rights. [Originality/value] The mineral water category is the one with the highest production volume in the Brazilian non-alcoholic beverage sector, being the one that grew the most in absolute numbers in the last fifteen years. In view of this, considering the lack of legal studies on the topic, it is of fundamental importance to defend procedures for the elimination of unstable elements present in mineral waters.

Both proponents and critics of the regulatory state thesis view the creation of non-majoritarian institutions, such as independent regulatory agencies, as a process of 'depoliticisation'. This article problematises this assumption by proposing an analytical framework for better understanding the link between politicisation, depoliticisation, and the delegation of powers to non-majoritarian institutions, based on a study of drug rationing policies in England and France. A greater delegation of decision-making powers to a regulator enables policy decisions that are likely to prove politically costly, but such decisions are also likely to attract greater counter-mobilisation, undermining policy stability over time. By contrast, in a less delegated setting, elected politicians can prevent unpopular policy choices from being taken, which contributes to policy continuity. The article further argues that, where decision-making powers are highly delegated, the regulator's autonomy and the visibility of losses imposed by policy decisions condition the politicisation process. These findings suggest that, far from depoliticising policy problems, delegated policymaking insulated from politics can undermine itself by becoming a source of subsequent politicisation; they thus question the prevailing notion that delegation to non-majoritarian institutions contributes to policy stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the traditional doctrine of the "regulatory state", regulatory agencies should be given very focused mandates and stay away from the politicized realm of distributive policies and decisions. An opposing perspective would state that if regulatory agencies can contribute to economic redistribution, positive results such as network expansion, economies of scale, and fiscal efficiency will ultimately lead to lower levels of regulatory failure. This article tests whether, in countries of high socio‐economic inequality, such as Brazil, the active incorporation of distributive considerations by regulatory agencies leads to lower levels of failure. Through the analysis of the activities of seven Brazilian network regulatory agencies, the article develops theory‐driven expectations and tests these expectations using crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (csQCA). It concludes that not prioritizing redistribution is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for regulatory agencies' failure. In most types of failure, a lack of priority to redistribution leads to failure when combined with low regulatory capacity and low levels of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Which kind of European Union is emerging from the polycrisis? This paper argues that the EU is gradually becoming a ‘reinsurance polity’. In this system of transnational public reinsurance, European states remain their citizens’ primary insurers against individual and societal risks. As their insurance capacity is repeatedly overstretched by transboundary crises, the EU creates standing resources to provide back-up support. In contrast to federal co-insurance, EU reinsurance is directed towards states, with citizens affected merely indirectly. The paper defines public reinsurance, theorises its emergence and functioning, and provides three illustrative examples from the polycrisis (rescEU, Frontex standing corps, HERA). Reinsurance is a novel path of EU institutional development. Though a compromise among diverging national interests, it moves the EU beyond the regulatory polity without pushing it toward positive state-building. Formulating a pragmatic standard of transnational risk-sharing congruent with demoi-cratic notions of legitimacy, reinsurance could also provide a finalité of integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agency independence is understood to instil credibility in regulatory policy. This is a core tenet of regulation theory, foundational to the EU regulatory state’s own origin story. We put the assumption to rigorous testing, in addition to expanding on it theoretically. We expect that stakeholder perceptions of credibility depend not only on agencies’ institutional insulation, but also on whether regulatory outcomes are congruent with stakeholders’ prior beliefs and preferences. Focusing on EU food safety regulation and the European Food Safety Authority, we test, observationally and experimentally, whether the credibility of agency scientific outputs is enhanced when stakeholders perceive the agency as more independent. Some support for the theorised link is present observationally, yet we do not find consistent and reliable experimental causal evidence for the purported relationship. We further find that the credibility of agency outputs is greatly influenced by stakeholders’ prior positions on the issue, pointing at persistent contestation. The study advances our understanding of the factors that shape credibility perceptions, supplementing institutional accounts with individual-level considerations, namely the role of priors. Our study indicates independence is a necessary but partial solution in that it can enhance stakeholder perceptions of credibility but does not compensate for the negative effect of priors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory failure is common in network industries, hence the concerted efforts to introduce reforms across the different industries in South Africa and other jurisdictions. South Africa's National Planning Commission (2012) recommended a review of economic regulations to mitigate the rising costs and tariffs in the regulated industries. A review of this nature would open an opportunity to rethink reforms beyond protecting the independence of the regulatory agencies to a broader embrace of institutional redesign and realignment to achieve specific policy outcomes. Contemporary scholarship in South Africa has continued to overemphasise the independence of the regulatory agencies with limited attention paid to a comprehensive institutional appraisal of the regulatory value chain. This chain is comprised of various actors, thereby enhancing our understanding of the complexity of regulatory policy, which is defined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (nd) as "achieving government's objectives through the us of regulations, laws and other instruments to deliver better economic and social outcomes and thus enhance the life of citizens and business". An institutional approach can also enable reconsidering regulation beyond economics by integrating other disciplines, such as politics, sociology, and history. There is currently limited literature on integrating and using institutional theories to achieve this in South Africa. Therefore, this paper seeks to contribute towards a framework to analyse the genesis, development, and influence of institutions or rules on behaviour and performance in the network industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we primarily highlight the nature of governmental regulations that define and transform the role of a state. Based on careful scrutiny on the regulatory reform processes and outcomes between 1998 and 2019, we argue that international and domestic assessments of South Korean governmental regulations, which have been managed but not necessarily reduced, have remained steady due to South Korea's rapid improvement in regulatory reform. We also contend that domestic (i.e., an efficient bureaucracy that responds to the direction of the President as a social atmosphere that tolerates reforms) and international (i.e., the IMF request for intensive regulatory reform in return for a bailout) pressure influenced the South Korean government regulations in the late 1990s, with South Korea becoming a postdevelopmental state after democratization and then aiming to shift toward becoming a deregulated state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the contextual aspects of the digital transformation of the Turkish public administration system during the COVID-19 pandemic. It argues that the accelerating process of the digitalization of public services during the pandemic should be understood in connection with the ongoing, broader transformation of the Turkish state into the neoliberal regulatory state that has been ideologically framed as a facilitator of market-led economic development. This argument is based on the "state transformation approach" developed as an alternative analytical tool to address governance outcomes as a manifestation of neoliberally informed shifts in the location of state power, in the groups of actors that exercise state power, and in the ideas used to rationalize the exercise of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We challenge Kruck and Weiss' argument about the regulatory security state on two counts. First, we contest the notion that the regulatory state is a viable alternative to the positive security state. While regulation and epistemic authority are increasingly important means of security provision, they remain critically dependent power resources and political authority that only the positive state provides. The regulatory security state is premised on the positive state and unviable without it. Second, the rise of the regulatory security state over the past three decades reflects highly specific historical conditions rather than a general trend. These conditions include unusually low geopolitical tensions in Europe and the strong regulatory bias of EU integration. Concepts matter: The wider the notion of security, the more relevant the regulatory security state becomes. It is an important reality but the war in Ukraine reminds us of the enduring centrality of the positive state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper places the arguments about the rise of the regulatory security state in a broader perspective of regulatory governance and regulatory state literatures. It suggests that the regulatory security state is one morph of the regulatory state. It does not replace any other morph and indeed it is only partly new. I clarify the terminology around the 'old' and new' regulatory (security) state and suggests how to think about the concept of the RSS from a perspective of the state as a risk manager. The first part clarifies the idea of the 'regulatory state' and its origins. The second part distinguishes between the old regulatory state and the new regulatory state, and therefore also distinguishes between the old and the new RSS. The third part suggests that the regulatory state can be a positive, liberal or illiberal state. The fourth part theorizes the RSS as a risk state. Together these clarifications allow a more theoretically rich framework for the study of security governance from a regulatory governance perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'regulatory state' has prevailed in almost every sector of European public policy. The provision of security, however, is still widely viewed as the domain of the 'positive state', which rests on political authority and autonomous capacities. Challenging this presumption, we argue that expertise – as foundation of authority – and rules – as policy instruments – also shape the provision of European security by national and, in particular, supranational 'regulatory security states', namely the European Union (EU). We lay out a framework for mapping the uneven and contested rise of European regulatory security states; analyzing drivers and constraints of security state reforms; and grasping the implications of the regulatory security state for the effectiveness and democratic legitimacy of European security policy-making. We advance the research program on the regulatory state and contribute to an innovative understanding of who governs security in Europe's multi-level polity, by what means, and on what legitimatory grounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we reflect on South Korea's relative success in dealing with COVID-19 from the perspective of state theories. Korea's success was due to the legacies of the developmental state, combined with the elements of the regulatory state and the network state, and facilitated by IT development. We also argue that we are witnessing a new state type that no longer features the existing state types' obsession with economic development. The emerging state type is concerned with human security and actively utilizes IT and collaborative governance to predict and prepare for future contingencies. We label this a 'provident state'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has elicited a wide range of national responses with an even wider range of outcomes in terms of infections and mortalities. Australia is a rare success story, keeping deaths comparatively low, and infections too, until the Omicron wave. What explains Australia's success? Typical explanations emphasise leaders' choices. We agree, but argue that leaders' choices, and whether these are implemented effectively, is shaped by the legacy of state transformation. Decades of neo-liberal reforms have hollowed out state capacity and confused lines of control and accountability, leaving Australia unprepared for the pandemic. Leaders thus abandoned plans and turned to ad hoc, simple to implement emergency measures - border closures and lockdowns. These averted large-scale outbreaks and deaths, but with diminishing returns as the Delta variant took hold. Conversely, Australia's regulatory state has struggled to deliver more sophisticated policy responses, even when leaders were apparently committed, including an effective quarantine system, crucial for border controls, and vaccination programme, essential for exiting the quagmire of lockdowns and closed borders, leading to a partial return to top-down governing. The Australian experience shows that to avoid a public health catastrophe or more damaging lockdowns in the next pandemic, states must relearn to govern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Reflecting on recent empirical developments as well as insights from regulatory state theory, the paper considers directions in which the regulatory state could develop in the post-COVID-19 era. Design/methodology/approach – This is a de-contextualised analysis of regulatory developments drawing on the prior regulatory state literature and literature on post-crisis responses. Taking into account recent empirical developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the paper sets out, in a comparative context, scenarios for the future development of the regulatory state. Findings – Predicting the direction in which the regulatory state will develop is challenging, particularly at this early stage. Yet, we provide a conceptual framework for thinking about possible futures of the regulatory state and how domestic and international factors might mediate these futures. Originality/value – The paper provides a structured approach to the analysis of the regulatory state bringing together insights from the literature on the regulatory state, public management reform, and global regulatory shifts.

This article revisits Majone's famous argument about accountability in the regulatory state in reference to the European Union's (EU) Economic and Monetary Union. We show that the EU has entered the stage of a "para‐regulatory state" marked by increasing EU regulation in areas linked to core state powers. Despite the redistributive and politicized nature of these policy areas, the EU's "para‐regulatory state" has continued to rely on its regulatory model of accountability, focused on decisionmaking processes, and interest mediation. In line with Majone, we describe the model as procedural and contrast it to substantive accountability – which is necessary when regulation has clear redistributive implications. Using two case studies from fiscal policy and monetary affairs, we illustrate the predominance of procedural accountability as exercised by the European Parliament and EU Courts. We complement the empirical analysis with a normative discussion of how substantive accountability could potentially be rendered in both fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It can be seen from the research that there is very little actually written about the role of the judge in relation to regulatory power. It is clear from the research on the political and legal constitutions around regulatory power that it is a complex picture. Therefore, this paper maps out how the judiciary in England and France has responded to changes in government. The first part of this paper will start to chart out the expansion and contraction of judicial power in relation to executive powers. The second part will provide a comparison between England and France's regulatory systems and their relationships to their respective judiciaries. The conclusion sets out to answer the main question of where the judiciary sits in an a complex political, economic and legal tapestry to control a hybrid institution that sits outside of a legal constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The evolutionary history of cell types provides insights into how morphological and functional complexity arose during animal evolution. Photoreceptor cell types are particularly broadly distributed throughout Bilateria; however, their evolutionary relationship is so far unresolved. Previous studies indicate that ciliary photoreceptors are homologous at least within chordates, and here, we present evidence that a related form of this cell type is also present in echinoderm larvae. Results Larvae of the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus have photoreceptors that are positioned bilaterally in the oral/anterior apical neurogenic ectoderm. Here, we show that these photoreceptors express the transcription factor Rx, which is commonly expressed in ciliary photoreceptors, together with an atypical opsin of the GO family, opsin3.2, which localizes in particular to the cilia on the cell surface of photoreceptors. We show that these ciliary photoreceptors express the neuronal marker synaptotagmin and are located in proximity to pigment cells. Furthermore, we systematically identified additional transcription factors expressed in these larval photoreceptors and found that a majority are orthologous to transcription factors expressed in vertebrate ciliary photoreceptors, including Otx, Six3, Tbx2/3, and Rx. Based on the developmental expression of rx, these photoreceptors derive from the anterior apical neurogenic ectoderm. However, genes typically involved in eye development in bilateria, including pax6, six1/2, eya, and dac, are not expressed in sea urchin larval photoreceptors but are instead co-expressed in the hydropore canal. Conclusions Based on transcription factor expression, location, and developmental origin, we conclude that the sea urchin larval photoreceptors constitute a cell type that is likely homologous to the ciliary photoreceptors present in chordates.

This article uses the concept of regulatory cultures to understand the (dis)embedding of "independent" water regulation in India. It analyzes the specific case of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority and explores how discourses and practices (1990–2015) shaped the regulatory development in the water sector. By documenting the practices of meaning‐making of "independent" regulation, the paper queries the process(es) of subnational regulatory diffusion and analyzes how water regulation is translated, negotiated, contested, and subverted as situated meanings evolve in the process. Taking an anthropological approach to studying the State and regulation, the article demonstrates how and why the State remains at the very center of the regulatory project in the water sector in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed massive failures of governance at the global and national levels. Global health governance failed rapidly, with action quickly becoming nationally based, uncoordinated, and often zero-sum. However, domestic health governance also often fared very poorly, even in some of the wealthiest countries, which were ostensibly best-prepared to deal with a pandemic. Why? We argue that this reflects the inherent pathologies of the shift from 'government to governance' and of the 'regulatory state' it had spawned. This has resulted in the hollowing-out of effective state capacities, the dangerous diffusion of responsibility, and de facto reliance on ad hoc emergency measures to contain crises. We demonstrate this through a detailed case study of Britain, where regulatory governance and corporate outsourcing failed miserably, contrasting this with the experience of South Korea, where the regulatory state form was less well established and even partially reversed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulatory state has provided a useful framework for conceptualizing the nature of the EU and its role in policy making. Although it is widely accepted that the conditions of European integration have dramatically changed since the 1990s, when this approach was formulated, few scholars have sought to theorize the EU 'beyond' the regulatory state. To fill this gap, this article puts forward the concept of the catalytic state, tracing its emergence within the field of climate and energy. The article proposes an initial theorization of the EU's role as a catalytic state, situating it between the direct approach of the positive state and the indirect one of the regulatory state. On that basis, it provides a detailed mapping of catalytic state capacities in the climate and energy sector. Rather than replacing existing regulatory capacities, the paper argues, these new capacities have expanded the scope of EU action, following the logic of policy layering. To what extent this has indeed increased the ability of the EU to achieve its declared policy targets remains an open question, however. The paper concludes with a discussion of further research questions regarding the effectiveness, accountability and scope of the EU as a catalytic state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explains recent changes in the negotiation dynamics concerning EU asylum policies, the policy failure in the Common European Asylum System and the deadlock in its post-2016 reform. Combining the Core State Power framework with the literature on punctuated equilibria and bounded rationality, it argues that EU asylum policies have important redistributive implications. In earlier phases, these were concealed by a regulatory policymaking approach which depoliticized EU legislation in that area. The 2015 asylum crisis demonstrated that this approach failed to produce the expected integration and entailed an even unfairer distribution of asylum-seekers, hence leading to information updating among Member States. Together with the ascent of right-wing populism in many Member States, this has fundamentally changed the negotiation dynamics from a situation with a few dominant Member States to a highly politicized environment in which previously passive Member States acted either as promoters or as blockers, thus producing deadlock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The evolutionary history of cell types provides insights into how morphological and functional complexity arose during animal evolution. Photoreceptor cell types are particularly broadly distributed throughout Bilateria; however, their evolutionary relationship is so far unresolved. Previous studies indicate that ciliary photoreceptors are homologous at least within chordates, and here, we present evidence that a related form of this cell type is also present in echinoderm larvae. Results: Larvae of the purple sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus have photoreceptors that are positioned bilaterally in the oral/anterior apical neurogenic ectoderm. Here, we show that these photoreceptors express the transcription factor Rx, which is commonly expressed in ciliary photoreceptors, together with an atypical opsin of the GO family, opsin3.2, which localizes in particular to the cilia on the cell surface of photoreceptors. We show that these ciliary photoreceptors express the neuronal marker synaptotagmin and are located in proximity to pigment cells. Furthermore, we systematically identified additional transcription factors expressed in these larval photoreceptors and found that a majority are orthologous to transcription factors expressed in vertebrate ciliary photoreceptors, including Otx, Six3, Tbx2/3, and Rx. Based on the developmental expression of rx, these photoreceptors derive from the anterior apical neurogenic ectoderm. However, genes typically involved in eye development in bilateria, including pax6, six1/2, eya, and dac, are not expressed in sea urchin larval photoreceptors but are instead co-expressed in the hydropore canal. Conclusions: Based on transcription factor expression, location, and developmental origin, we conclude that the sea urchin larval photoreceptors constitute a cell type that is likely homologous to the ciliary photoreceptors present in chordates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has emphasized the need to develop a polymorphic conceptualization of the regulatory state. This article contributes to this theory‐building project by outlining a research agenda for exploring the symbiotic interactions and tensions between the regulatory and carceral morphs of the state. Using the case study of cannabis legalization reforms in the United States, we argue that the legitimation deficits of the carceral state stimulate the proliferation of new regulatory frameworks for governing social problems that were traditionally handled by the criminal justice system. We demonstrate how the polymorphic approach illuminates the ways in which the regulatory and carceral morphs of the state compete for influence over shared policy domains, but also complement and reinforce one another. Thus, rather than precipitating the demise of the carceral state, cannabis legalization reforms sustain a bifurcated governance structure perpetuating long‐standing patterns of using drug law as a means for racialized social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Brazilian Higher Education (HE) sector, following a global trend of rapid transformation, has undergone marked changes over the past two decades. These changes have involved the design of quality assurance tools as instruments for regulatory governance. In presenting an overview of the recent history and characteristics of quality assurance in the Brazilian HE sector, this paper contextualises the Brazilian experience according to broader conceptual frameworks and discusses how and why regulatory governance in this sector has so radically changed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's central banks wield extraordinary powers, both monetary and regulatory, and with a capacity to substitute for elected governments tempted to pass the buck. Debates about central banking's powers and legitimacy barely touch, however, on whether and how monetary independence fits with the values that drive constitutionalism. It turns out that, for modern economies using fiat money, independence is a corollary of the higher level separation of (fiscal) powers between the legislative and executive branches. Even though independence is necessary, it needs to be carefully constrained by a "money-credit constitution." Those general arguments, applicable in liberal democracies, do not carry across cleanly to the euro area. A principled case can be made for the ECB's mandate being specially tight, but that is in tension with its de facto role as the emergency economic actor for the euro area. Facing up to that will be necessary sooner or later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea had the largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 after China by February 2020. This situation changed dramatically in less than two months as it effectively managed the pandemic without imposing a nationwide lockdown. Furthermore, Korean pharmaceutical companies quickly manufactured sufficient test-kits and other COVID-19 essential medical devices to meet domestic demand and exported them to more than one hundred countries, including developed countries, amid global shortages. What explains South Korea's success story? Drawing on the developmental state concept, I argue that South Korea's success story can be attributed to 1) the early creation of a health official-led pilot agency; 2) the government's intervention for rapid production and export of medical equipment; 3) the distinct state-society relations. In doing so, contrary to the declinist literature, this study reveals that the Korean state's institutional capacity has not declined. It also illustrates that the developmental state seems to be an effective system in dealing with a pandemic and promoting economic activities during the crisis. However, it is yet to be seen how Korea will deal with future challenges arising from the new wave. This study also suggests how the Global South can learn lessons from the South Korean experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries increasingly participate in transgovernmental networks of global regulatory governance, but they do so in different ways. This article aims to provide an explanation for this variation for two of the major emerging powers in the world economy, Brazil and China, in their transition toward more active players in the global competition regime. Distinguishing between bilateral and multilateral transgovernmental networks and examining the domestic factors conditioning the transition of their national competition agencies from rule‐takers to rule‐promoters or rule‐makers through these networks, the article makes theoretical contributions to the linkage between transgovernmentalism and the regulatory state. I argue that differing political needs and the incomplete process of regulatory state formation push domestic agencies to join transgovernmental networks, with a need for greater legitimacy steering the Brazilian regulators to multilateral networks and facilitating their transition from rule‐takers to rule‐promoters. The Chinese agencies' primary need for expertise rather than legitimacy, by contrast, led them to pursue technical assistance and cooperation via bilateral relationships. The Chinese approach has slowed its transition from rule‐taker to rule‐promoter where its norms and practices are aligned with the established powers. Such approach will further impede its transition into a global rule‐maker in areas of competition law and policy where China's preferences diverge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the 21st century we have witnessed a proliferation of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) in Asia Pacific. China has been at the forefront of this development. Initially, China's PTAs were very shallow and mainly aimed at building friendly relationships with developing countries. However, over time, China has started to negotiate deeper PTAs with developing and developed countries alike. This notable shift has thus far been understood to result from four broad motivations: China's desire to access key export markets; the facilitation of regional production networks; to address resource security concerns; and/or to further geostrategic interests and political influence. We propose that these motives are not sufficient to fully account for China's new generation trade agreements. We suggest that China is increasing its integration into the world economy to push for domestic marketization and reform by credibly committing to trade liberalization through PTAs. Deep and comprehensive PTAs oblige a country to follow a set of rules that leave little leeway to violate the terms. In order to successfully implement and enforce PTA commitments, China has also gradually strengthened its regulatory state by investing in regulatory capacity and capability in the field of trade policy. We test the plausibility of our argument through an in‐depth analysis of the PTAs signed by China since 2000 and find evidence that China's PTAs are indeed in part driven by a desire to lock in domestic economic reform, which has gone hand in hand with a strengthening of its regulatory state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue examines the consequences of the ongoing power transition in the world economy for global regulatory regimes, especially the variation in rising powers' transition from rule‐takers to rule‐makers in global markets. This introductory article presents the analytical framework for better understanding those consequences, the Power Transition Theory of Global Economic Governance (PTT‐GEG), which extends the scope of traditional power transition theory to conflict and cooperation in the international political economy and global regulatory governance. PTT‐GEG emphasizes variation in the institutional strength of the regulatory state as the key conduit through which the growing market size of the emergent economies gives their governments leverage in global regulatory regimes. Whether or not a particular rising power, for a particular regulatory issue, invests its resources in building a strong regulatory state, however, is a political choice, requiring an analysis of the interplay of domestic and international politics that fuels or inhibits the creation of regulatory capacity and capability. PTT‐GEG further emphasizes variation in the extent to which rising powers' substantive, policy‐specific preferences diverge from the established powers' preferences as enshrined in the regulatory status quo. Divergence should not be assumed as given. Distinct combinations of these two variables yield, for each regulatory regime, distinct theoretical expectations about how the power transition in the world economy will affect global economic governance, helping us identify the conditions under which rule‐takers will become regime‐transforming rule‐makers, regime‐undermining rule‐breakers, resentful rule‐fakers, or regime‐strengthening rule‐promoters, as well as the conditions under which they remain weakly regime‐supporting rule‐takers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When rapid economic growth catapults a country within a few years from the margins of the global economy to middle power status, does global regulatory governance need to brace for a challenge to the status quo? To answer this question, we extend the power transition theory of global economic governance to middle powers: A rising middle power should be expected to challenge the international regulatory status quo only if increasing issue‐specific strength of its regulatory state coincides with preferences that diverge from the preferences of the established powers, which are enshrined in the status quo. We examine this argument empirically, focusing on South Korea in the realm of competition law and policy. We find that South Korea, a non‐participant in the international competition regime until the 1980s, developed in the 1990s substantial regulatory capacity and capability and thus "spoiler potential." At the same time, however, its policy preferences converged upon the norms and practices established by the United States and the European Union, albeit with some distinct elements. Under these conditions, we expect a transition from rule‐taker to rule‐promoter. We find that South Korea has indeed in recent years begun to actively promote well‐established competition law and policy norms and practices – supplemented by its distinct elements – through technical assistance programs, as well as various bilateral channels and multilateral institutions. The findings suggest that the power transition theory of global economic governance is usefully applicable to middle powers, too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I examine the ways in which the global financial crisis that began in 2007, and whose effects arguably condition policymaking to the present day, affected the ongoing global power transition as manifested by the unilateral decisions undertaken by official agencies comprising national regulatory states. The theory of that power transition articulated in the overview paper of this Special Issue is reinterpreted to take into account the circumstances of that crisis. Empirical evidence on the propensity to discriminate against foreign commercial interests by the BRICS, Turkey, the European Union, and the United States during the years 2008 to 2017 at, and behind, the border is employed to identify a group of six potential rule‐shapers and two possible sham rule‐takers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s, emerging economies such as Brazil, India, and China have adopted transparency‐enhancing public procurement regulations in line with international norms. Yet they have hesitated to join the World Trade Organization's legally binding Government Procurement Agreement (GPA). Based on the Special Issue framework, this article scrutinizes the underlying domestic and international determinants, and how they influence emerging countries' positions in two overlapping international procurement regimes. In particular, reform‐oriented state actors, societal pressure, and lesson‐drawing from international templates have induced a strengthening of domestic procurement institutions and turned emerging countries into "promoters" of the international transparency regime. Conversely, the rising powers have remained, to varying degrees, reluctant "spoilers" of the GPA‐based market access regime in order to keep policy space and use procurement for domestic development objectives. The article suggests that this regulatory‐developmental layering of rule‐based governance and interventionist ambitions characterizes the variegated regulatory state in emerging countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of COVID-19 on the Australian higher education system. It analyses how the contradictions of Australian higher education, driven by expanding participation in the higher education system within the context of contained public funding, have been politically managed through regulatory regimes that link the public university with the neoliberal capitalist economy. Such modes of state intervention have been dependent on financialized instruments such as income contingent loans, the education–migration nexus, and precarious work. These regulatory instruments, embedded within a project of market citizenship, have both managed and expanded the marketization of higher education while also expanding participation. It is this regulatory model of market citizenship that is now facing a crisis of crisis management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To assess the role of the judiciary in defining the Regulatory State and in regulating telecommunications in Mexico after almost 5 years of the creation of an independent regulator for telecommunications and broadcasting (Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones) with authority in antitrust matters. Methodology/approach/design – To identify the most relevant judicial decisions in telecommunications and antitrust matters, research upon the context in which they were adopted, analyze the content of the decisions and identify the impact of such judicial decisions in the construction of the Mexican Regulatory State, and in the law, in regulation/acts of the regulator. Findings – The main findings are that: (1) the Mexican Regulatory State is a reality now, even if it is in its beginnings; (2) Congress is receptive to Judiciary´s decisions; and (3) deference by judiciary to the regulator is not a blank check, even if there are complex technical issues and a discretionary decision. Practical implications – The identification of a Regulatory State in Mexico evidences that there are deep changes in the traditional relationship between Congress and regulators. Also, the deference granted by the courts to regulators must be considered as a consequence of such Regulatory State. Nonetheless and despite the deference to regulators, Judiciary´s role in building the telecommunications and broadcasting sector is paramount, because judicial decisions ultimately define it. Originality/value – Major changes to telecommunications and broadcasting have taken place in Mexico in the last years. Therefore, there has been scarce research and analysis about the new role of regulators, legislators, and judges, in the so called Regulatory State in Mexico. Moreover, the experience of Mexico may be valuable for other scholars which are assessing public policy in their own Latin American countries or in countries with similarities to them.

Regulatory governance involves the use of heterogeneous mechanisms to extract welfare gains from market‐based processes. While often viewed as a depoliticization mechanism, here, we explore a distinctly political manifestation of regulatory governance. Our study focuses on the governance of affordable housing in England, specifically on local authorities' use of 'Section 106′ (S106) powers to compel private developers to include affordable housing in new developments. We show that, following the financial crisis, the governance of affordable housing shifted from a partisan to a valence issue. As the crisis increased the issue salience of affordable housing, left‐wing authorities' hitherto higher tendency to intervene was eroded in the midst of a broad‐based increase in S106 deployment. In addition to extending insights into the political economy of regulatory state intervention, our findings shed valuable light on the undersupply of affordable housing in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder engagement practices are on the rise in regulatory governance. This raises an important question regarding implications for regulatory legitimacy. Engagement mechanisms are not by default legitimizing: Even when initiated to tap into an array of 'benevolent' desiderata, unless carefully balanced and built-for-purpose, they can become conduits for de-legitimation. Much like Schrödinger's cat, neither dead nor alive, so too can stakeholder engagement be, in principle, a source of legitimation and de-legitimation. We suggest three distinct sets of explanatory factors to assess the (de-)legitimizing nature of stakeholder engagement: contextual determinants, the institutional design of specific engagement arrangements, and organizational rationales and individual preferences. Taken as a whole, the documented broadening and deepening of engagement in regulatory governance, points at a more encompassing transition of the regulatory state, away from its traditional legitimizing tenants. Unless carefully tailored, this transition risks eroding the distinguishing features that underpin the regulatory state's very claim to authority. We highlight that addressing contemporary societal challenges and many of the regulatory conundrums associated with them calls simultaneously for independent expertise necessarily grounded in the much-needed (but carefully-balanced) audience support that sustains regulatory authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stakeholder participation in regulatory processes has become increasingly common. The literature on citizen, customer and consumer participation in regulation shows a rise in these types of engagement, based primarily on individual case studies. However, we lack a solid empirical base for the discussion of this trend. This paper asks to what extent and why this rise in participation in regulatory policy-making occurs, creating a cross-sector, cross-country map of participatory regulation. The research is based on a quantitative, dictionary-based analysis of regulatory agencies' annual reports from 1998 to 2017 (n = 781). The findings show a rise in the use of terms related to participation over time, with the notable exceptions of financial and environmental regulators. These terms are most commonly used in EU level agencies, in Australia and France, while being rarely used in the German and Austrian cases. Our analysis shows that polity level variation is a key driver of how regulators use terms related to participation, and argues that such participation is less common in countries in which stakeholder participation is carried out at the national level through centralized corporatist institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulatory state that developed in Britain and elsewhere in the 1980s and 1990s was characterised by independent agencies, efficiency-based objectives, 'econocratic' analysis, and an emphasis on output- and outcome-based legitimacy. Yet, with economic regulation becoming increasingly politicised, the 'responsible' regulatory state has come under pressure. How have British regulators adapted to these changes? Building primarily on interviews with regulators, we find that the regulatory state has become more responsive to broader political and public concerns. Key responsible features have been maintained, but new responsive layers have been added, contributing to a broadening of decision-making and conceptions of regulation, a greater role for communication and outward-oriented activities, and a widening of stakeholder engagement and accountability. Though supporting theories of organisational reputation and survival, the (ongoing) changes raise new questions about how much 'political space' independent economic regulators can feasibly and legitimately occupy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the mechanisms that courts apply to expose private social service suppliers to constitutional duties. In doing so, we suggest two variants of welfare regimes: the regulatory constitutional welfare state and the regulatory constitutional neoliberal welfare state. We outline how constitutional rights, including social rights, are applied to private entities, and the tests that courts use in doing so. We then analyze the transformation of traditional jurisprudence in Israel since the 1990s, and we discuss developments in British jurisprudence, which embraces a neoliberal approach. We end with an analysis of the differences between British and Israeli jurisprudence to highlight our theoretical framework's contribution to comparative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regulatory state model has traditionally been used to analyse the process of integrating the European energy sector, including the sensitive area of security of gas supply. This article argues that, due to recent innovations, this conceptualisation has become increasingly problematic and cannot provide an accurate picture of the current governance and politics of European energy security. This article applies the catalytic state model to the EU and contrasts it with the regulatory state approach. The catalytic state describes a peculiar pattern of governance which combines—rather than resolves—the tensions between market-centred and state-centred approaches and supranational and national views on EU energy security. This article also illustrates how this stylised form of state can be used to better frame the guiding principles, strategies and tools that are currently emerging as EU institutions address the issue of security of gas supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information-based regulation occurs when regulators use information to drive changes in behaviours in order to achieve public policy objectives. Information-based regulation has emerged as an alternative way to regulate firms compared with more traditional direct command-and-control and market-based policy instruments within the contemporary regulatory state. Despite growing international interest, challenges remain in understanding the roles for regulators in information-based regulation, the functions of regulators in shaping and leveraging information flows, and the administrative capacities required to fulfil them. Based on a systematic review methodology, this article synthesises the findings of 130 peer-reviewed articles in the environmental, energy and food policy areas. It develops a typology of functions for regulators and outlines the new administrative capacities required in the contemporary regulatory state, particularly in standard setting, assurance and intermediation, and smart data management. Points for practitioners: Regulation by information is becoming popular in many part of the world beyond its original genesis in the US and other developed countries. The design and implementation of such schemes creates new challenges for regulators. Our review integrates relevant research in three policy areas (environment, food and energy) and develops a new typology of functions performed by regulators. The article is the first to discuss how the roles and functions of regulators need to change in the contemporary information and regulatory environment. It also emphasises the importance of regulatory involvement in information-based regulation, which has traditionally been seen as a deregulatory approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Union agencies are crucial institutional agents of the EU regulatory state. As such, they are faced with multiple expectations from a broad array of audiences. Reputation literature teaches us that the process of how organisations manage the expectations of their multifaceted audiences is central to organisational reputation. However, there has been little research about the diverse aspects of organisational reputation that EU agencies communicate to legitimise their existence. And how does this vary over time, across agencies, and why? More broadly, the study reflects on the implications of these attempts at self-presentation for the regulatory state's legitimising credentials. It introduces a novel measurement of reputational dimensions and draws on a quantitative analysis of all EU regulatory agencies' annual reports across time. Our findings indicate that agencies are becoming more reputationally-astute over time, expanding their reputational repertoire. However, this expansion is consistent with the tenants of the EU regulatory state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]