ABSTRACT
The deregulation debate of the 1980s has emphasized such defects of the regulatory process as the absence of a real budgetary discipline and the consequent tendency to over-regulate, legalism and unnecessary rule complexity, inflexibility in the face of technological and economic innovations, and poor co-ordination among regulators. However, the most persistent and fundamental criticisms of statutory regulation by independent agencies have been concerned less with such technical problems than with the normative issues of public accountability and democratic legitimacy. It seems therefore appropriate to conclude this book devoted to the rise of statutory regulation in Europe with a discussion of these issues.
