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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
“Man of science should turn to the massive task of making more accessible our bewildering store of knowledge”
Vannevar BushTraditionally, theories on regulation have suggested choosing the “right” regulatory tool for a given situation of desired behavioral steering, using a broad theoretical approach of understanding the factors involved in the regulatory realm and speculating from it toward the efficient choice.
By contrast, this paper will argue that the process of choosing the “right” regulatory tool should be guided by an opposite process, in which a searchable database of regulatory case studies (“Global-Regulation”) will be created. The institution (i.e., governments, regulation agencies, etc.) seeking to steer behavior using regulatory tools (“The Regulator”) will search Global-Regulation using the specific characters of its situation (i.e., industry, regulationmethod, country, etc.), to find relevant case-studies that will lead to the best regulatory solution.
It is assumed that this approach will establish regulation and regulatory tools as an empirical process of selection guided by a global accumulated body of knowledge, that will eventually create amore efficient and successful regulation and hence, desired behavior. The first part of this paper will provide an overview of regulatory learning. The second part will describe the Global-regulation database. The third partwill develop an example of the way in which case studies will be indexed into the Global-Regulation database. The fourth part will discuss the benefits of Global-Regulation to scholars and its symbiotic relationship with the research in the regulatory field. Finally, this paper will address possible problemswith the suggested system.
1 As We May Think, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945.
2 Scott Jacobs, Managing Director at Jacobs and Associates suggested their RIA course <http://regulatoryreform.com/ria-training.html> (last accessed on 6 August 2013); Tom R. Burns, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Uppsala, Sweden suggested two articles: <http://www.thecommonsjournal.org/index.php/ijc/article/view/260/217> (last accessed on 6 August 2013), The second article has appeared recently (2011) in Human Systems Management, The EU case studies are presented in substantial detail in Marcus Carson et al, “Paradigms in Public Policy: Theory and Practice of Paradigm Shifts in the EU”, Peter Lang Publishers and David Bach, Professor of Strategy and Economic Environment, IE business School, Spain, suggested an old HBS case on RWE and regulation of electricity in Germany.
3 2011 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities <http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/inforeg/2011_cb/2011_cba_report.pdf> (last accessed on 6 August 2013).
4 The actual web-based project is available online on at <http://www.Global-Regulation.com> (last accessed on 6 August 2013).
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34 Ibid.
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36 See Rose, supra note 27.
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