The Regulatory State in an Age of Governance: Soft Words and Big Sticks

243 Pages·2007·1.321 MB·English

by  Roger King (auth.)

The Regulatory State in an Age of Governance
AlsobyRogerKing
THESTATE,DEMOCRACYANDGLOBALIZATION(withG.Kendall)
THEUNIVERSITYINTHEGLOBALAGE
THESTATEINMODERNSOCIETY
CAPITALANDPOLITICS
THEMIDDLECLASS(withJ.Raynor)
RESPECTABLEREBELS(withN.Nugent)
The Regulatory State in an
Age of Governance
Soft Words and Big Sticks
Roger King
CentreforHigherEducationResearchandInformation
TheOpenUniversity,UK
©RogerKing2007
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To Charlie and Patrick
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Preface ix
Part I Analysing the Regulatory State
1 RegulationasaModeofGovernance 3
2 TheDevelopmentoftheRegulatoryStateintheUK 34
3 GovernanceintheRegulatoryState 63
4 TheEuropeanRegulatoryState 93
5 TransnationalRegulatoryGovernance 123
Part II The Different Worlds of the Regulatory State:
Policy Domains in the UK
6 HigherEducation:TheAmbiguousRegulatoryState 151
7 Healthcare:TheInsuringRegulatoryState 167
8 AccountancyandLaw:ThePrivateRegulatoryState 188
9 Conclusion 208
Bibliography 214
Index 223
vii
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to Mick Moran for his advice and inspiration for
thisbook.
I am also indebted to Bridget Hutter and her colleagues at the ESRC
CentrefortheAnalysisofRiskandRegulation(CARR)attheLSEforthe
stimulationprovidedbytheworkandseminarsoftheCentre.Aversion
ofChapter6appearedfirstasaseminarpresentationatCARRandwas
followedupbyitbeingturnedintoaCARRDiscussionPaper.Iamvery
gratefulforthehelpandstimulationprovidedinboththeseminarand
thepreparationofthesubsequentDiscussionPaper.
IamalsogratefulforthesupportofJohnBrennan,RuthWilliamsand
colleaguesattheCentreforHigherEducationResearchandInformation
(CHERI)atTheOpenUniversitywhereIhavebeenaVisitingProfessor
since2003.
ElementsofChapter6ontheHigherEducationRegulatoryStatehave
beendrawnfromtwojournalarticlesparticularlythatarereferencedas
King(2007)andKingetal.(2007),andIamgratefultoHigherEducation
and the Oxford Review of Education for allowing an early ventilation of
someoftheideasandfindingsusedinChapter6.
viii
Preface
The world appears gripped by rapid change. New information techno-
logies are speeding up levels of communication around the globe and
supplying increasing variety in delivery methods, such as the Internet,
mobiletelephonyandinteractivedigitaltelevision.Moreover,personal
websites and individual ‘blogs’ are freeing content and opinion from
the gatekeeping editorializing of the more conventional media, such
as print newspapers and publicly-licensed broadcasters. Expression in
cyberspaceisincreasinglyopen,accessibleandchaotic,andlessandless
channelled through commonly recognized authorities and established
intermediaries, such as trained journalists or mainstream publishers.
New business models utilizing the Web, such as those associated with
eBayorAmazon,arealsopredicatedonbringingindividualpurchasers
and suppliers into direct correspondence with as little organizational
intermediationasispossible.
ThomasFriedmann(2006)suggeststhat,sincearoundtheyear2000,
weareundergoingaglobalizingrevolutionbasedona‘flatworld’tech-
nological platform, which is characterized by a convergence of the
personal computer, fibre optic cable and a fast-developing work flow
software. This enables business processes to be disaggregated, distrib-
uted worldwide to the most efficient and effective locations, and then
to be reintegrated back at the corporate centre. Multi national corpor-
ations locate their business operations worldwide to best commercial
effect and do not feel especially constrained to combine the separate
commercialfunctionsoftheirorganizationswithinaparticularnational
jurisdiction. This ‘flattening’ of the globe enables intellectual work
to be delivered from anywhere, thus empowering more diverse and
non-Western individuals than occurred in previous globalizations. Old
command-and-controlhierarchiesarebeingobliteratedfrombelowand
beingturnedintohorizontalandcollaborativearrangements,reinforced
bythegrowthofuploadingandthedigitizationofallimportantformsof
expression. Top-down, hierarchical and institutionalized downloading
topassiverecipientsisrapidlygivingwaytothepowerofindividualsand
groups(bothgoodcitizensandterrorists)toproduceanddistributeglob-
allytheirownideasandproductsinawaywhichisreshapingtraditional
formsofmobilization,innovationandinformationdissemination.
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