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Fundamentals of Regulatory Design
The modern regulatory world is crowded with ideas about different regulatory approaches including, among performance-based regulation, self-regulation, light-touch regulation, right-touch regulation, safety management systems, 3rd party regulation, co-regulation, prescriptive regulation, risk-based regulation, a harm-reduction approach, problem-solving, and responsive regulation.
Are these various terms merely rhetorical, or aspirational? Do they signal the political preferences of the times? Which of them actually affect operations?
Professional regulators—along with everyone else in the risk-control business—face a complex array of choices when they design (or redesign) their strategies and structures, programs, work-flows, relationships, and day-to-day operations. What regulators choose to do, and how they choose to do it, greatly affects their effectiveness, as well as the quality of life in a democracy.
This book tackles five major design issues that affect all regulators (and can be applied by anyone else in the risk-control business). It demystifies the various labels and vogue prescriptions for regulatory conduct, clarifies the options, and generates a range of distinct ideas about what it might mean to be a "risk-based regulator."
This book is designed primarily for regulatory practitioners, but will be relevant for other professionals whose roles include risk-management and harm-reduction. In the public sector, this includes law-enforcement and public-safety organizations, as well as security and intelligence agencies. In the private sector it includes compliance managers, safety officers and risk-managers. In the not-for-profit sector this includes any organization that takes on, or contributes to, harm-reduction missions.
Professor Malcolm K. Sparrow, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has been working with senior officials in regulatory and enforcement agencies for over 30 years. Prior to joining Harvard's faculty in 1988, he served ten years with the British Police Service, rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. He has authored eight other books, including The Regulatory Craft (Brookings, 2000) and The Character of Harms (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He chairs Harvard's Executive "Strategic Management of Regulatory & Enforcement Agencies."
This book is designed, in the context of a pandemic, to substitute for five core lectures/discussions that would normally be delivered face-to-face in executive-level courses and workshops. Professor Sparrow offers these lectures here in a comfortably accessible and conversational style.
Each chapter describes a different dimension of choice, inviting readers to assess their own organization's history and habits as a precursor to figuring out whether, looking forward, some adjustment is warranted or desirable.
Each chapter contains a collection of "Frequently Asked Questions" reflecting practitioners' common queries about the concepts presented, and ends with a "Diagnostic Exercise" (a set of probing questions) that readers can use, perhaps with colleagues in a book-group, to apply the analysis in their own setting.
Online
Individual chapters can be assigned as “asynchronous study assignments” for courses on regulatory practice. Students, feeling “all screened out,” may appreciate the availability of a printed edition.
Are these various terms merely rhetorical, or aspirational? Do they signal the political preferences of the times? Which of them actually affect operations?
Professional regulators—along with everyone else in the risk-control business—face a complex array of choices when they design (or redesign) their strategies and structures, programs, work-flows, relationships, and day-to-day operations. What regulators choose to do, and how they choose to do it, greatly affects their effectiveness, as well as the quality of life in a democracy.
This book tackles five major design issues that affect all regulators (and can be applied by anyone else in the risk-control business). It demystifies the various labels and vogue prescriptions for regulatory conduct, clarifies the options, and generates a range of distinct ideas about what it might mean to be a "risk-based regulator."
This book is designed primarily for regulatory practitioners, but will be relevant for other professionals whose roles include risk-management and harm-reduction. In the public sector, this includes law-enforcement and public-safety organizations, as well as security and intelligence agencies. In the private sector it includes compliance managers, safety officers and risk-managers. In the not-for-profit sector this includes any organization that takes on, or contributes to, harm-reduction missions.
Professor Malcolm K. Sparrow, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has been working with senior officials in regulatory and enforcement agencies for over 30 years. Prior to joining Harvard's faculty in 1988, he served ten years with the British Police Service, rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. He has authored eight other books, including The Regulatory Craft (Brookings, 2000) and The Character of Harms (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He chairs Harvard's Executive "Strategic Management of Regulatory & Enforcement Agencies."
This book is designed, in the context of a pandemic, to substitute for five core lectures/discussions that would normally be delivered face-to-face in executive-level courses and workshops. Professor Sparrow offers these lectures here in a comfortably accessible and conversational style.
Each chapter describes a different dimension of choice, inviting readers to assess their own organization's history and habits as a precursor to figuring out whether, looking forward, some adjustment is warranted or desirable.
Each chapter contains a collection of "Frequently Asked Questions" reflecting practitioners' common queries about the concepts presented, and ends with a "Diagnostic Exercise" (a set of probing questions) that readers can use, perhaps with colleagues in a book-group, to apply the analysis in their own setting.
Online
Individual chapters can be assigned as “asynchronous study assignments” for courses on regulatory practice. Students, feeling “all screened out,” may appreciate the availability of a printed edition.
145 pages, Hardcover
Published October 31, 2021
40 people are currently reading
34 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 1, 2021
This is Sparrow's pandemic book; the PowerPoint he has been touring the regulatory world with for decades turned into a book. At the AFM, I think I have seen his Comic Sans presentations a couple of times, albeit many years ago.
The book greatly benefits from Sparrow engaging with the material in so many sessions; each chapter ends with frequently asked questions and many objections or questions are addressed in the text.
Fundamentals of Regulatory Design (2020) is much more practical and easier to read than other famous Sparrow book like The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance(2000) or The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control(2008). A more practical (Dutch) book I always recommend is De Interventie - Hoe los je hardnekkige nalevingsproblemen op? by Rob van Dorp & Jan Schipper (Inspectieraad 2013).
Full summary: https://wilte.wordpress.com/2021/02/2...
The book greatly benefits from Sparrow engaging with the material in so many sessions; each chapter ends with frequently asked questions and many objections or questions are addressed in the text.
Fundamentals of Regulatory Design (2020) is much more practical and easier to read than other famous Sparrow book like The Regulatory Craft: Controlling Risks, Solving Problems, and Managing Compliance(2000) or The Character of Harms: Operational Challenges in Control(2008). A more practical (Dutch) book I always recommend is De Interventie - Hoe los je hardnekkige nalevingsproblemen op? by Rob van Dorp & Jan Schipper (Inspectieraad 2013).
Full summary: https://wilte.wordpress.com/2021/02/2...
April 6, 2024
I'm a nerd and read a book related to work for pleasure. Anyone working in regulation would enjoy this - it examines and gives you questions about how regularly work is done.
It is clearly self published - but I didn't find any errors or problems.s, it's just a bit simple in its graphics and layout.
It is clearly self published - but I didn't find any errors or problems.s, it's just a bit simple in its graphics and layout.
February 26, 2021
Absolute must-read for professional regulators
This book is essentual reading for any professional regulator, regardless of their domain. It is insightful and to the point, yet inspiring for anyone interested in the regulatory craft.
This book is essentual reading for any professional regulator, regardless of their domain. It is insightful and to the point, yet inspiring for anyone interested in the regulatory craft.
June 28, 2023
If you are in any regulatory position, this books should be on your annual reading list.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews