Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law
Abstract
This paper explores the possibility that a developing form of regulatory governance is also sketching out a new form of anticipatory regulatory democracy. \u27Competitive supra-governmental regulation\u27 is largely driven by non-state actors and is therefore commonly viewed as suffering a democracy deficit. However, because it stresses broad participation, intensive deliberative procedures, responsiveness to state law and widely accepted norms, and competition among regulatory programs to achieve effective implementation and widespread public acceptance, this form of regulation appears to stand up relatively well under generally understood criteria for democratic governance. Nonetheless, a more satisfactory evaluation will require a much better understanding of which programs win regulatory competitions, and why