Regulatory Agencies

Improved Essays
The independence of regulatory agencies indicates that they can operate without political interference and this ‘independence’ means protection from interference from the political power, particularly from the executive branch through ‘for-cause removal protection’ or through specified terms of tenure with their independence granted by legislation or the Constitution and mechanisms such as collegial membership . For Brown and others:

The key characteristic of the independent regulator model is decision-making independence. This means that the regulator’s decisions are made without the prior approval of any government entity, and no entity other than a court or a pre-established appellate panel can overrule the regulator’s decisions. The institutional building blocks for decision making independence are organizational independence (organizationally separate from ministries and departments), financial independence (an earmarked, secure and adequate source of funding), and management independence (autonomy over internal independence and protection from dismissal without due cause). In the United States the first independent regulatory agency was the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) established in 1887 with five commissioners appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate . These agencies are considered part of the ‘fourth branch of government’ and enjoy constitutional protection , although they are not part of the Constitution and they are to be distinguished from ‘executive agencies’ which are controlled by the Presidency . What is unique about independent agencies is that ‘they adjudicate, that is, decide contested matters, on a case by case basis. They make policy, whether through the formal/informal method of rulemaking, or by proclaiming standards and rules of conduct. They also prosecute for civil violations of the statutes they administer’. In Texas, the Railroad Commission of Texas provides a good example of an independent agency in the State of Texas responsible for the regulation of the oil and gas industry and the award of drilling licenses in State lands: The Railroad Commission, through its Oil and Gas Division, regulates the exploration, production, and transportation of oil and natural gas in Texas. Its statutory role is to (1) prevent waste of the state's natural resources, (2) to protect the correlative rights of different interest owners, (3) to prevent pollution, and (4) to provide safety in matters such as hydrogen sulfide. What is unique about the Railroad Commission is that its commissioners are elected officials and this gives them a stronger legitimacy that is supported by a direct democratic mandate, contrary to other independent agencies . In the United States, independent federal
…show more content…
The agent-principal relationship is between Congress (the principal) and the independent Agency (the agent), as Posner argues:

one is delegation of authority by legislatures to administrative agencies. As mentioned earlier, legislatures cannot continuously regulate a complex area; they must delegate much of the regulatory function either to courts or to administrative agencies. In the area of economic regulation the legislative choice has generally been the administrative agency rather than the court.

As mentioned before, the establishment of independent regulatory agencies has led to the rise of the ‘regulatory state’ as a policy tool and the waning of the centralised system of regulation. As Majone explains:

among the most obvious structural consequences of the shift to a regulatory mode of governance is the rise of a new breed of specialised agencies and commissions operating at arm’s length from central

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In the United States we have the free enterprise system in our mixed market economy that allows our business owners to make decisions without the governments input. There may be some government regulation, but for the most part our government…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nt1330 Unit 6 Term Paper

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First of all, we have the regulations and laws to inhibit all possible deviations, which is an ex ante procedural constraint on the policy-making process. What is more, this administrative procedural provides us with a delay, which gives us enough time to intervene before the bureaucrats take actions with noncompliance. Working as an early warning system, it allows us to adjust and rearrange. However, there are some disadvantages of this solution.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Wickard v. Filburn United States Supreme Court 317 U.S. 111 (1942) Facts: In the year 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt and congress passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). This act set a limit for the total amount of wheat that can be put into the interstate commerce. The act further implemented penalties for violation of the law. Farmers had a set amount of wheat for which they could produce each year.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    7. Why is the Court’s absence of judicial enforcement important? The absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the president at times to ignore Supreme Court rulings. Congress and presidents have good reasons for favoring this approach that allows Congress to delegate lawmaking discretion to the executive branch without surrendering ultimate control.…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Interest groups have the ability to directly influence the public as well as provide the other iron triangle group with insight on certain policy ideas(C. 2015, December 19). The bureaucracy is a group of non-elected officials that hold significant influence in the iron triangle in the way they are able to conduct businesses. Congressional committees are able to pass laws to improve issues in society (2017, April 30). All together these three groups are able to shape and affect how the administrative system in…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In addition, public sector standards are higher than before which creates another challenge. The value complexity results in the higher standards (157). The bureaucracies are held to an extremely tough standard that would be strenuous to obtain. The standards are for the bureaucracies to be efficient, of course, and then to also be fair, open, honest, accountable, consistent and responsive (158). Along with the outrageous overload, bureaucracies are also asked to execute things that no one knows how to achieve.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.” The highly respected British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was the originator of this statement; yet it appears that the government of the most powerful nation on earth, the United States, long ago disavowed the idea behind this. The United States government has committed itself almost single-mindedly to the overbearing regulation of everything from advice columns to magicians’ rabbits, as John Stossel’s television special War on the Little Guy shows. Jeff Rowes of the Institute of Justice, in an interview with Stossel during War on the Little Guy, says that “America was conceived as a sea of liberty, with islands of government power. We are now a sea of government power with ever-shrinking islands of liberty.”…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Bureaucracy is the other side of the coin, defined as : “a system for controlling or managing a country, company, or organization that is operated by a large number of officials employed to follow rules carefully”(“Bureaucracy Definition,” 2015), this means that those who support a Public Administration system that is fully bureaucratic want those who are most qualified appointed by those in power to care for the country(Crew, 1992). This push and pull of systems has plagued Public administration since the start and never seems to fully get answered(Burke & Cleary, 1989). There are scholars who believe that the greatest system is a combination of both and these three systems are what we will be examining in this literature review. Democracy is the system that most commonly the public thinks of when they think of Public Administration and public service.…

    • 1351 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The primary motivation of any politician is election, and by extension, reelection. Republicans, for example, tend to run on a anti/small government platform. It is politically advantageous for the general public to believe in the ineffectiveness of government, if it as platform that politicians can benefit from. The Submerged State discusses how many social programs which are funded by taxpayer dollars, for example, the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is not widely recognizable to the general public as a government social program. The creates misperceptions which have an important effect on the electorate, the median voter does not seem him/herself as being a beneficiary of the tax dollars that they are contributing to the system.…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) was set up in 2014 as a response to Leveson’s call for a regulator that would cease the failure of its predecessors. However, IPSO does not have an intention of being recognised as a press regulator under Royal Charter (Goodman, 2016). Goodman (2016) argues that IPSO does not support statutory regulation and considers it to be a threat to a free press. Therefore, by ignoring some of the key Leveson’s suggestions, it causes some critics to consider whether its structure and functioning are fully independent of the influence of the media industry. On the other hand, there are alternative self-regulators, such as, recently approved by the Press Recognition Panel, IMPRESS and in-house regulators,…

    • 1920 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The concept of “checks and balances” is a policy implemented by our founders, which separates the three branches of government into the legislative, judicial and executive branches. The main purpose of this system is to ensure that the powers of the national government are separated from one another. The Legislative branch, composed of Congress is broken up into two chambers, the Senate and The House of Representatives. These two chambers are meant to have each state represented in them, of which officials were elected directly by the people in an open election.…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Essay On Regulatory Law

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As of the 21st century, regulatory laws have impacted our daily activities and lives. Regulatory laws are regulations that set out certain requirements on what is legal or illegal. The Impact of Regulatory Law on American Criminal Justice- Are there too many laws? by Vincent Del Castillo provides an overview of the results of having regulatory laws. While the book talks about a variety of topics, we will mainly focus on illegal drugs, guns, the police, and also the societal consequences.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The urge for consumer laws crept in after the evolution of technology consumers were not aware of the new technological developments .For example if a consumer buys a microwave the consumer is not aware of the internal working of the microwave so in order to protect the consumer from exploitation consumer laws were introduced .In the same way the concept changed from buyer beware to seller beware this was the main reason for the evolution of consumer laws in united states of America. In United Kingdom consumer laws emerged after the second world war when industrialization increased the people started a consumer movement . United States is a federal Nation so in order to protect the consumers and to have a centralized law an agency is…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This course began by questioning the proper role and place of public administration as a field of study. As we conclude with our final week, the topic arises once again. Donald Kettl in "Public Administration at the Millennium: The State of the Field, Laurence Lynn Jr. in "The Myth of the Bureaucratic Paradigm: What Traditional Public Administration Really Stood For," and Frederickson et al in The Public Administration Theory Primer evaluate the field of public administration, by answering three questions. They provide answers to where has the field been, where is it now, and where is it going.…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The resources that street-level bureaucrats have to work are very inadequate. Yet, the demand from the public, or clients, is always increasing. As a result, street-level bureaucrats are constraints to the resources. Street-level bureaucrats also have broad discretion and that’s because of the constraints they are force upon. The resources that they have to work with also make the goals of street-level bureaucrats ambiguous and conflicting.…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays