The study of the politics of regulation has followed two distinct paths in recent years. "New institutionalism" research has focused primarily on the policy-making process, particularly the interplay between regulators (who implement policy) and their political principals (who attempt to control...

Has the United States suffered a regulatory breakdown? The answer to this question might appear to be an obvious “yes.” Over the past several years, the nation has suffered not only a sustained economic downturn triggered by a cataclysmic financial crisis but also one of the worst...

This paper offers a retrospective assessment of economist George Stigler's classic article, The Theory of Economic Regulation. Stigler argued that regulation is a product that, just like any other product, is produced in a market, and that it can be acquired from the governmental...

In the search for explanations for three of the most pressing crises of the early twenty-first century (the housing meltdown and financial crisis, the Gulf oil spill, and the nuclear disaster at Fukushima), commentators pointed to the structure of the regulatory agencies charged with overseeing...

This chapter examines the origins and development of independent regulatory agencies in the United States, discusses the agencies and commissions typically considered “independent,” and considers foundational topics for the scholarship on regulation more broadly, including regulatory capture...