Ten Things You Need to Know about Regulation and Never Wanted to Ask

Abstract

For most people, “to regulate” means to control or direct others by rules, standards or principles. The term can carry negative baggage, particularly when attached to government. Rightly or wrongly, government regulation on occasion connotes authority “making” people do things they would not otherwise do, and generally interfering in people’s lives in intrusive and wasteful ways. Taxation is a field of government regulation that has attracted such criticism, particularly amongst small business. Regulation need not be this way. When regulation is understood as a social activity that includes persuasion, influence, voluntary compliance and self-regulation, the term “to regulate” takes on a whole new dimension. Regulation becomes something that we all engage in when we intervene purposefully in our social world. It can be holding a child’s hand at a pedestrian crossing, encouraging a work mate to take recreation leave, or reminding a family member to put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket. At the Regulatory Institutions Network at the Australian National University, we understand regulation to apply to the broader social context, with an appreciation of the full gamut of activities that fall under the regulation umbrella. As Christine Parker and John Braithwaite (2003) put it, we regulate whenever we seek to influence the flow of events. When we look at regulation from this perspective, people regulate each other, in the family, at work, in leisure pursuits, and on social occasions. The regulation that governments oversee is but the tip of the iceberg; the most formal admittedly, but in many ways the least sophisticated. When we consider regulation across informal and formal contexts, we gain a more complete intuitive grasp of the nature of regulation, the role of those with power and those without, and the ways in which regulation can either facilitate collective achievements or undermine hopes and initiative Show more