Regulatory Quality in Europe: Concepts, Measures and Policy Processes

Description

The European Union and its member states are investing in ambitious programmes for 'better regulation' and targets of regulatory quality. This book lifts the veil of excessively optimistic propositions covering the whole better regulation agenda. It provides an innovative conceptual framework to handle the political complexity of regulatory governance. It approaches better regulation as an emerging public policy, with its own political context, actors, problems, rules of interaction, instruments, activities and impacts. Focusing on the key tools of impact assessment, consultation, simplification, and access to legislation, the authors provide fresh empirical evidence on the progress made in the member states and in Brussels, drawing on an extensive research project and an original survey of directors of better regulation programmes in Europe. Radaelli and De Francesco show how indicators define, measure, and appraise better regulation policy, linking measures to policy processes in which the stakeholders learn by monitoring. -- .

Claudio M. Radaelli is Professor of Political Science, Jean Monnet Chair, and Director of the Centre for Regulatory Governance at the University of Exeter. Fabrizio De Francesco is ESRC Research Fellow and doctoral candidate in the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter -- .

"The whole 'better regulation movement' may amount to little unless effective ways are found to measure regulatory quality. This book, accordingly, will be essential and timely reading for policymakers as well as academics - it will offer particularly valuable and informed discussions of regulatory impact assessments and other new tools of regulatory governance."--Robert Baldwin, London School of Economics and Political Science. "This book is an incisive analysis of Better Regulation tools. The authors provide a comprehensive and thoughtful discussion of the institutional determinants of regulatory quality. It will bridge the debates among academics and practitioners."--Klaus Jacob, Freie Universitaet Berlin. "The European Union has long since been depicted as a "regulatory polity," and the quality of the EU's regulatory output long derided and debated. In this useful and important book, Claudio Radaelli and Fabrizio De Francesco undertake a systematic analysis of the quality of EU regulation, using original indicators to assess whether Europe is indeed achieving "better regulation."--Mark A. Pollack, Temple University. " The whole 'better regulation movement' may amount to little unless effective ways are found to measure regulatory quality. This book, accordingly, will be essential and timely reading for policymakers as well as academics - it will offer particularly valuable and informed discussions of regulatory impact assessments and other new tools of regulatory governance." --Robert Baldwin, London School of Economics and Political Science. " This book is an incisive analysis of Better Regulation tools. The authors provide a comprehensive and thoughtful discussion of the institutional determinants of regulatory quality. It will bridge the debates among academics and practitioners." --Klaus Jacob, Freie Universitaet Berlin. " The European Union has long since been depicted as a "regulatory polity," and the quality of the EU's regulatory output long derided and debated. In this useful and important book, Claudio Radaelli and Fabrizio De Francesco undertake a systematic analysis of the quality of EU regulation, using original indicators to assess whether Europe is indeed achieving "better regulation."--Mark A. Pollack, Temple University.