Delegation in the Regulatory State : Independent Regulatory Agencies in Western Europe

'When scholars and practitioners want to understand regulation in Europe, this book should be the first place they will turn. Combining innovative data, smart statistical analysis, and an in-depth knowledge of regulatory agencies and processes across a wide range of countries, Gilardi has produced an essential study of regulation and a stellar piece of scholarship.'- Charles Shipan, University of Michigan, US'This is a crucial important book for the study of independent regulatory agencies, an increasingly prevalent institution at the heart of the governance of markets. Gilardi offers an excellent quantitative analysis of the spread of such agencies. He presents a remarkable dataset and rigourously tests different explanations. His coverage is wide and his methods are first class. His conclusions will interest all scholars who work on the regulatory state.'- Mark Thatcher, London School of Economics, UK'Regulatory agencies are an important aspect of the contemporary regulatory state. Drawing on an extensive body of comparative analysis, Fabrizio Gilardi's book provides a serious contribution that moves the literature forward. This book deserves to be considered carefully.'- Martin Lodge, London School of Economics, UK'Fabrizio Gilardi's book is empirical political science of the regulatory state at its best. It has data of transnational breadth and depth that is diagnosed in a theoretically sophisticated way. The conclusion is that policymakers delegate in order to tighten the credibility of policy commitments and to tie the hands of future ministers who may have different preferences. This will become a building block for future scholarship on regulation and governance.'- John Braithwaite, Australian National University