Distinct Paths of Development -- The Regulatory State in the United States and Canada

The paper takes Giandomenico Majone's characterization of the regulatory state as starting point for a comparative analysis of the structures, politics, & policies of regulation in the US & Canada. It argues that Majone's approach only partly captures the reality of the US regulatory system &, by concentrating on the US, fails to incorporate other versions of the regulatory state. The American regulatory state is only of limited value as a reference model for the European nation-states, because the characteristics of national regulatory regimes are shaped by political culture & state structures. In this regard, Canada bears a much stronger resemblance to the European nations. Therefore, its long experience with regulatory institutions & practices is likely to be more instructive for the European debates. Future analysis should focus more strongly on the filtering processes by which national responses to general trends are shaped & on the distinct paths of development resulting from these processes. 88 References. Adapted from the source document.