Cracks in the "Regulatory State". (September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Perrow, Charles
• Is Part Of: Social currents. Volume 2:Number 3(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 203
• Page End: 212
• Publication Date: 2015-09
• Subjects: organizations -- occupations and work -- inequality -- political sociology; Sociology -- Periodicals; 301
• DOI: 10.1177/2329496515589855
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2329-4965

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, the U.S. states has retreated from its regulatory responsibility over private-sector economic activities. Over the same period, a celebratory literature, mostly in political science, has developed, characterizing the current period as the rise of the regulatory state or regulatory capitalism . The notion of regulation in this literature, however, is a perverse one—one in which regulators mostly advise rather than direct, and industry and firm self-regulation is the norm. As a result, new and potentially dangerous technologies such as fracking or mortgage backed derivatives are left unregulated, and older necessary regulations such as prohibitions are weakened. This article provides a joint criticism of the celebratory literature and the deregulation reality, and strongly advocates for a new sociology of regulation that both recognizes and documents these failures.