ABSTRACT
In the second half of the 1990s, after years of controversial debates, both the European Community (EC) and Germany decided to liberalise their electricity markets.1 These regulatory reforms fundamentally alter the established sectoral governance regimes. Such regimes can be defined as the ‘totality of institutional arrangements-including rules and rule-making agents-that regulate transactions within and across the sector’s boundaries’ (Hollingsworth et al. 1994: 5). Compared to other sectors, the electricity supply regimes have been characterised by a high degree of state regulation, a strong presence of public enterprises, the exclusion of competition, the national character of the markets, and closed policy networks between sectoral and state actors. The utilities have displayed cooperative relations and long-term investment strategies based on the exclusion of competition.
