Springer US
Boston
http://www.springer-ny.com
11077
0032-2687
1573-0891
Policy Sciences
Integrating Knowledge and Practice to Advance Human Dignity
Policy Sci
Social Sciences, general
Economic Policy
Political Science
43
43
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5
2010
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10
2010
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2010
9
2010
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
2010
9108
10.1007/s11077-010-9108-0
3
From “smart regulation” to “regulatory arrangements”
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261
2010
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2010
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The Author(s)
2010
Peter
Van
Gossum
+32-9-2722370
+32-9-2722341
pvgossum@yahoo.com
Bas
Arts
Kris
Verheyen
Laboratory of Forestry
Ghent University
Ghent
Belgium
Social Sciences Unit
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO)
Ghent
Belgium
Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group
Wageningen University
Wageningen
The Netherlands
Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 115
9820
Merelbeke
Belgium
Abstract
When regulators are faced with practical challenges, policy instrument choice theories can help them find the best solution. However, not all such theories are equally helpful. This paper aims to offer regulators a better alternative to the current policy instrument choice theories. We will specifically address the shortcomings of “smart regulation theory” and present an alternative that keeps the best of that theory while remediating its weak points. Some authors (Böcher and Töller 2003; Baldwin and Black 2008) say that smart regulation theory does not address institutional issues, compliance type-specific response, performance-sensitivity and adaptability of regulatory regime. We have resolved these problems by merging the smart regulation theory with the policy arrangement approach and the policy learning concept. We call the resulting approach “regulatory arrangement approach” (RAA). The central idea of the RAA is to constrain the almost infinite “smart” regulatory options by: the national policy style; adverse effects of policy arrangements of adjoining policies; the structure of the policy arrangement of the investigated policy and competence dependencies of other institutions. The reduction can be so drastic that the potential governance capacity falls below the smart regulation threshold. In other words, no smart regulatory arrangement can be developed in that institutional context unless policy learning occurs. In addition, a “smart” regulatory arrangement is no guarantee that the policy will succeed. For this reason, the performance of the regulatory arrangement is measured and evaluated. Performance below a certain threshold indicates that the regulatory arrangement needs to be adapted, which then results in policy learning. We illustrate the usefulness of this new approach with a secondary analysis of the Flemish sustainable forest management policy.
Keywords
Instrument choice
Policy learning
Policy instrument
Political modernization
Policy style
Governance capacity
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