Multi-Level Regulation in the Telecommunications Sector Adaptive Regulatory Arrangements in Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands and Switzerland

by Aubin, David; Verhoest, Koen

• ISBN13: 9781137004918
• ISBN10: 1137004916
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-06-10
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Through a comparison of the telecommunications sector in four small European countries, this study assesses the coordination between regulatory authorities at European, national and regional levels, within and between sectors offering a new and more holistic perspective of multi-level regulation in network industries. Rather than focusing exclusively on features of the individual sectoral regulatory agency, this book considers all the regulatory actors at different government levels involved in the regulatory arrangement of a specific market and their interplay. In particular, it assesses the design and functioning of these multi-level regulatory arrangements in terms of decision-making coordination and exemplifies how national telecoms regulatory agencies share and coordinate regulatory decisions with other regulatory authorities at EU, national and regional levels, within the sector and across sectors (media, general competition), in order to provide coherent regulation of telecoms markets. Combining theories of regulatory governance and public administration, the book analyses how specialization and coordination within these regulatory arrangements influence the relative decision-making power and autonomy of the sectoral regulatory agency, as well as how these arrangements adapt to overcome regulatory incoherencies.

Author Biography

David Aubin is Professor of Political Science at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium. His research focuses on integrated management of natural resources and regulation of network industries. He has published in journals such as Water Policy, Politiques et Sociétés, Environmental Politics and the Journal of Public Policy.

Koen Verhoest is Research Professor at the Research Group of Public Administration Management, Department of Political Science, University of Antwerp, Belgium, and has been Co-chair of the ECPR Standing Group of Regulatory Governance since 2012. He has published on public sector organization and coordination in, among others, Governance, International Review of Administrative Sciences and Organizational Studies.

Table of Contents

1.Aim, Central Claims and Structure of the Book; Koen Verhoest and David Aubin
2. Assessing the Regulatory Arrangements: Concepts, Theory and Methods; David Aubin, Emmanuelle Mathieu, Joery Matthys and Koen Verhoest
3. Regulation of Telecommunications in Belgium: Organizational Complexity and Regulatory Effectiveness; Emmanuelle Mathieu and David Aubin
4. Informal Relationships and de Facto Independence of the Regulator in the Irish Telecommunications Regulatory Arrangement; Muiris MacCarthaigh
5. To Merge or not to Merge: The Institutional Re-Design of Telecommunications Regulation in the Netherlands; Kutsal Yesilkagit
6. Regulation of the Telecommunications in Switzerland: A Network Approach to Assess the Regulatory Agencies' Independence; Karin Ingold and Frédéric Varone
7. Autonomy and Decision-Making Power of Independent Regulatory Agencies in Multi-Level Arrangements; Koen Verhoest, David Aubin, Joery Matthys and Emmanuelle Mathieu
8. Evolutionary Multi-Level Regulatory Arrangements: The Impacts of the Resolution of Incoherencies; David Aubin and Koen Verhoest