Self-Regulation as Policy Process: The Multiple and Criss-Crossing Stages of Private Rule-Making

Abstract

While there are many studies of self-regulation, they have not yet systematically analyzed the very process by which rules are developed and implemented. This article treats self-regulation as a process with sufficient autonomy and functional coherence to display identifiable stages, each of which deserves independent attention in turn. It draws from the literature on the stages of public policy processes and uses this as a template to identify and analyze the unique properties of private rule-making, while acknowledging the criticisms that have been made of excessive determinism and simplicity in some applications of the general idea of stages. The article shows that our understanding of self-regulation is significantly advanced by examining it as a process with stages but it emphasizes that the different stages of the self-regulatory policy process (agenda-setting, problem identification, decision, implementation and evaluation) are criss-crossed in numerous and interesting ways. It also shows that private rule-making often seeks to solve societal problems in domestic and international settings and is an important alternative to public regulation but self-regulation is rarely completely de-coupled from public authority. Instead, public authority is activated to solidify self-regulatory arrangements across the different stages of the policy process.