Authors
David Coen, Mark Thatcher
Publication date
2005/7
Journal
Governance
Volume
18
Issue
3
Pages
329-346
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Description
Since the 1980s, the governance of markets has been transformed. In developed economies, the postwar settlement—whereby capitalism continued but was attenuated by a large industrial public sector, public monopolies in key sectors, and interventionist government industrial policies—has been severely attacked. At the international level, the ability of nations to set their own economic policies and terms for international trade has been curtailed. Most cross-national studies have focused on the worldwide spread of privatization and liberalization (Feigenbaum, Henig, and Hamnett; Simmons and Elkins; Suleiman and Waterbury). Such a focus might lead to the belief that markets have been “deregulated”(cf. Beesley; Derthick and Quirk; Vietor). 1 However, this special issue shows that in fact a new governance of markets has been introduced. In particular, new intermediaries between national governments and private suppliers and consumers have grown in number and significance, namely non-majoritarian regulators (NMRs). The spread of NMRs has altered the governance of markets. Regulatory powers are now more widely distributed—at the national, regional, and international levels. National governments face NMRs to whom they have delegated powers but which have their own resources, strategies, and relationships. The actors involved in markets and their relationships and behavior have changed. The present volume looks at these developments. It focuses on NMRs and goes beyond formal institutional structures to analyze the behavior of NMRs in practice. Its central argument is that the functions and autonomy of NMRs have grown …
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