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State Regulation: Captured Victorian-Era Anachronism or “Re-enforcing” Autonomous Structure?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2003

Paul Teske
Paul Teske
Affiliation:
Has been a professor of political science at Stony Brook University since earning his Ph.D. at Princeton University in 1989 (paul.teske@sunysb.edu). He will become professor of public affairs at the University of Colorado's Graduate School of Public Affairs in Denver in fall 2003. Teske has published books and articles on regulation, education policy, and public entrepreneurship
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Abstract

Is American state regulation a quaint anachronism from the nineteenth century, hanging on like a faded Victorian mansion in a twenty-first-century neighborhood increasingly subsumed by modern, international regulatory architectures? Or is it a booming area of devolved powers in our federalist system, creating more innovation and efficient small-scale bargaining than out-of-touch regulators in Washington do? Surprisingly, state regulation is becoming more important in shaping American firms operating in global markets. I present a revised interpretation of American regulatory federalism, including the “gap filling” or “re-enforcement” efforts by some state legislatures or attorneys general as federal regulators relax enforcement efforts. I summarize the results of 10 new quantitative studies of major regulated industries across the 50 states and over time. Overall, capture or rent-seeking models do not explain most regulatory areas, which show considerable interest-group contestation and provide room for institutional actors to wield autonomous, influential power. The heightened salience of state regulation is reflected by increased gubernatorial effort in many states, parallel to recent presidential efforts to centralize regulatory policy-making.

Type
Articles
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 291 - 306
Copyright
© 2003 by the American Political Science Association

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