Regulatory lookback

A path towards efficiency and economic freedom in the result-based Public Administration

Resumen

[Purpose] This paper suggests, from its theoretical-dogmatic assumptions, which parameters should be observed by the regulatory entity when exercising normative power in the context of a result-based Public Administration; further on, it proposes a view on the regulatory efficiency in line with the desirable (and necessary) guarantee of economic freedom, so that it can be demonstrated that the regulatory stock management (regulatory lookback) does not depart from the general duty of analyzing the impact that the regulatory standard produces (or will produce) over the regulated sector.

[Methodology/approach/design] This paper identifies the theoretical-dogmatic bases that in (post-)modernity guide the administrative action, oriented by an efficient achievement of results that are based in the satisfaction of public interests, and also proposes to bring a descriptive view of the normative power exercised by regulatory agencies (which are responsible, among other duties, for inspecting, regulating and sanctioning economic agents operating in a specific regulated sector), to then enter into concrete examples that show the progressive adoption of mechanisms for efficient management of regulatory stock in Brazilian regulatory agencies.

[Findings] This paper shows, in the light of empirical elements derived from normative acts and other documents edited by Brazilian regulatory agencies, that the review of the regulatory stock is a mechanism of significant relevance with regard to the promotion and achievement of economic efficiency in environments subject to state regulation. It indicates that the culture of regulatory stock revision will become increasingly present in administrative praxis, as several initiatives (although, in some cases, still incipient) reveal the concern of the regulatory state with the strengthening of the legal security and economic freedom.

[Practical implications] The conclusions of this paper are applicable in the regulatory practice, as they reveal how the review of regulatory stock can contribute to the achievement of the regulatory agencies’ purposes; by adopting the practices described and examined in this paper, through their own normative instruments, the agencies contribute to the strengthening of legal security, regulatory efficiency, and the promotion of objectives defined by the legislator with respect to a given sector of the economic activity subject to regulation.