Between Scylla and Charybdis (dissertation)

Regulators’ supervisory practice requires navigating between Scylla and Charybdis – even more so if they are faced with harmful but legal conduct from regulated organizations.?Which happens often.

Remarkably, almost all regulators examined in my dissertation undertake ‘interventions beyond the law’ – supervisory interventions not based on enforcement powers – to counteract such conduct. A range of research techniques provides insight into why and how regulators thus go beyond their legal enforcement mandate. In practice their response is rarely driven by explicit policy. The response rather emerges from how regulators see their own role. Domain characteristics play a part, as well as inspectors’ individual viewpoints (although it seems, surprisingly, not their demographic characteristics).

To what extent regulators are effective in averting harmful but legal conduct may depend on how inspectors play the supervisory game and navigate the moral and relational vulnerabilities as detailed in this dissertation. But ultimately the legitimacy of interventions beyond the law may depend on how a regulator maintains alignment with its environment and copes with the associated dilemmas.?

The full dissertation can be found here (ePub) and here (Pdf). Any comments, questions? All are welcome.