Enforcement Styles Research Articles

Weaving Straw into Gold: Rule Bending, Localism, and Managing Inconsistencies in Organizational Rules

This article explores how microfinance institutions (MFIs) resolve tensions between the creation and the enactment of organizational rules. The study complements rich ethnography with detailed loan data to show that some loan officers frequently bend rules to better address client needs, while others enforce the rules strictly. Differences in enforcement styles are analyzed to explain the structural conditions that generate them. The article shows that officers exercise discretion productively to help clients and improve company policies. Yet, their effectiveness is contingent on being held in check by rule enforcing peers. This is because the same conditions that generate officer discretion also create a fuzzy professional identity. Thus, branch-level interactions between similar loan officers result in “localist” identities decoupled from the firm; while branches with diverse enforcement styles generate professional identities that are integrated with the firm, create amplified learning, and increase the legitimacy of discretion in rule enactment.

Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Moral Dirigisme: Toward a Reformation of Drug and Prostitution Regulations

This Article builds upon various scholarly critics of moralistic laws to argue that legal prohibition of drugs and prostitution is inefficient. In so doing, it relies on economists’ scholarship, which has demonstrated that the high costs of regulation are not justified, considering the minimal success of these regulations as well as the harm caused by those regulations. Philosophers, for millennia, have grappled with formulating principles of morality and have attempted to determine which of those principles ought to be codified and imposed as societal rules of law on individuals. Attempts to coerce individuals into adopting certain behavioral patterns or forgo destructive ones have been referred to as “moral dirigisme”. Moral dirigisme manifests itself in “the attempt or tendency to control certain kinds of moral behavior by formal legal means. (See, e.g., Mario J. Rizzo, The Problem of Moral Dirigisme: A New Argument Against Moralistic Legislation, 1 N.Y.U. J.L. & LIBERTY 789, 791 (2005). Moral dirigisme (John Stuart Mill, On Liberty 13 (Stefan Collini ed., 1989) (1859) is an economic term, which describes an economic structure for which the government provides strong direction. (See generally Elie Cohen, Le Colbertisme “High Tech”: Economie Des Telecom et du Grand Projet (1992); David Baker, The Political Economy of Fascism: Myth or Reality, or Myth and Reality?, 11 NEW POL. ECON., 157, 227-50 (2006). The term dirigisme derives from the French word diriger, which means to guide. (see WordReference.com, French to English Dictionary, (last visited Sept. 3, 2009). Moral dirigisme, by analogy, refers to the underlying philosophy which believes that moral behaviors can be changed through formal regulation. It is referred to, by Mario J. Rizzo, as “the attempt or tendency to control certain kinds of moral behavior by formal legal means.” (See Rizzo, supra note 2, at 791). Rizzo views acts by the state to prohibit or authorize certain conduct of individuals in an attempt to force them to act morally as flawed. Id. The laws prohibiting drugs and prostitution serve as perfect examples of implementation of a moral dirigiste philosophy. I contend in this Article that the dirigiste approach to drugs and prostitution is erroneous and inefficient. From Plato’s Socrates to Kant’s Categorical Imperatives to Hume’s observations, philosophers have confronted the nebulous intersection of absolutely necessary laws and purely beneficence-inducing laws, which cannot be implanted as a product of coercion. While the principles of justice have generally been perceived as capable of inspiring precise laws, other principles such as those guiding beneficence have been viewed by philosophers as more contingent on the individual’s state of mind or circumstances and less likely to be regulated by formal rules. This Article explores the proper role the law should play in regulating behaviors (such as drug use and/or in prostitution) that society deems harmful, but that are resistant to prohibition. Additionally, it considers items deemed harmful to the public, but not subject to any form of prohibition. Furthermore, it re-examines the consequences of U.S. drug and prostitution policy, focusing on the inevitable “black market” effects of the punitive style of enforcement, and initiates serious consideration of policy alternatives to discourage drug use and limit the number of vulnerable women engaging in prostitution. Consequently, the Article is divided as follows. Part II considers the inefficiency of the prohibition of drugs and prostitution. Part III discusses the underlying legal and philosophical theories that support prohibitory legislation and analyzes why prohibition of drugs and prostitution, although a popular default mechanism, is ineffective at eradicating these behaviors. Part III also identifies the Smithian-Humean view of justice as a basis to evaluate prohibition-based laws. Part IV explores the issues inherent in the prohibition of drugs and considers alternative approaches. Part V explores issues that result from the prohibition of prostitution and Part VI proposes an alternative framework to the prohibition of prostitution. Part VII explores ways of preventing pro-prostitution regulations from strengthening the sex trafficking market. Finally, Part VIII borrows from philosophical frameworks to formulate a standard that helps differentiate between effective and ineffective prohibition. Through an analysis of the unintended effects of prohibition, this Article provides a strong economic and legal argument for the legalization of prostitution and, at the very least, marginal changes in U.S. drug policy.

Changes in Enforcement Styles among Environmental Enforcement Officials in China

This study examines changes in enforcement styles among environmental enforcement officials in the context of China's rapidly changing institutional environments, using panel data collected in Guangzhou in 2000 and 2006. Altogether, five enforcement style elements were examined—accommodation, prioritization, educational, formalism, and coercion. It was found that in 2006 respondents reported greater reliance on education, formalism, and coercion than in 2000. During the same period 2000–06, no significant changes were found for the enforcement styles of accommodation and prioritization or in the respondents' perceptions of their organization's enforcement effectiveness. From regression models in which enforcement styles were used to predict perceived organizational enforcement effectiveness, it was observed that the coefficient for formalism had changed substantially over this period, from being significantly negative to significantly positive, which may be evidence of a general shift from ‘rule by man’ to ‘rule by law’ in China. This study has benefited from the concept of regulatory enforcement style elements, as it allows for an empirical understanding of regulatory enforcement beyond the common and normative dichotomy of deterrence versus cooperation.

Dimensions of Enforcement Style: Factoring in Regulatory Autonomy and Capacity

This article explores how the concept of enforcement style can be adapted to be more analytically useful in the study of regulatory behavior and its effects in developing countries. In its first part, the article sets forth a dimensional conception of enforcement style and suggests two new dimensions to incorporate the variations in the autonomy and capacity of regulatory agencies that are so significant in developing countries. In its second part, the article uses this analytical framework to compare the enforcement styles of state environmental agencies in two Brazilian states, São Paulo and Pará.

Responsive regulation at the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority: An empirical assessment of assumptions underlying the theory

AbstractResponsive regulation usually boils down to the assumption that enforcers should not shift to coercing before it has become clear that persuading does not work. This presupposes that it is possible to determine what the correct enforcement style is, that enforcers can apply the most suitable style, and that enforcers control the negative unintended consequences of their conduct. We have studied the applicability of these presuppositions at the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority by way of observations, interviews, and a survey. The applicability of all three presuppositions has proven problematic; enforcement agents apply different styles in comparable cases; they are impeded in applying the most appropriate style; and they do not control the perverse consequences of their conduct because regulatees tend to perceive it as more coercive than intended by inspectors. Our findings are not unique to this inspectorate and hence raise questions about the applicability of the theory of responsive regulation.

Investor Protection under MiFID: Cure Worse than the Disease

The year 2008 is a propitious time to evaluate systems of investor protection in financial markets as global bank losses exceed the 1 trillion mark. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive [MiFID] is the regulatory equivalent of the deregulatory 1987 Big Bang that shaped the current European financial markets. It also applies to one of the world's largest trading regions. MiFID and its Level 2 implementing Directive are complex, comprehensive, and challenging for interpretive construction, given the novelty of the Directive, the absence of judicial decisions, and its opaque language. In Lamfalussy terms, MiFID is a Level 1 document containing high principles of governance. The level 2 Directive provides concrete organisational requirements and procedures for investment firms performing activities governed by the Directives. This article selects certain investor protection provisions of MiFID for examination, within the larger context of the macroeconomic function of financial markets, and the theoretical underpinnings of investor protection in the United States and in Europe, as well as the practical track record of enforcement of investor protections in Europe to evaluate the effectiveness of investor protection under the new instruments. The conclusions reached indicate that the style of investor protection envisaged within MFID is likely to impose substantial costs upon investors to the benefit of investment firms, while probably falling short of fulfilling the promises of the risk/reward equation. The effectiveness of investor protection, which depends exclusively upon the quality of enforcement, is questionable given the European Union's passive enforcement style toward financial market misconduct. In addition, as the recent global financial crisis has demonstrated a fundamental assumption of MiFID is false: the need to interpose a professional investment advisor between the investor and the markets. Countless examples from history related to scandals and market crashes support this contingent truth. MiFID, if successful, will achieve its economic objectives of financing the markets with investor savings, and thereby achieving the conventionally accepted theory of the macroeconomic function of financial markets. Nevertheless, the question remains are the investor protection provisions of MiFID an investor blessing or an investor execution.

Estilos de implementação e resultados de políticas públicas: fiscais do trabalho e o cumprimento da lei trabalhista no Brasil

The article argues that variations in the outcomes of the same public policy can be explained by different practices and enforcement styles adopted by front-line bureaucrats. Based on extensive field research on the enforcement of labor legislation in Brazil, the author develops a typology of the outcomes of labor inspection in terms of levels of compliance with labor regulations in different economic activities. Findings from comparative analysis (across and within cases) indicate consistent associations between the enforcement style adopted by labor inspectors that combines sanctions with technical and/or legal assistance, and the reconciliation of labor rights with increased company performance and competitiveness.

Regulatory Objectives and Creative Regulation: The Enforcement Process in the Mexican Competition Commission

This paper analyzes how regulatory objectives are achieved in the Mexican Federal Competition Commission. An emphasis is made on the analysis of the environmental and institutional settings and the implications of these in its enforcement process and regulatory activity. The analysis includes the issue of regulatory decision making, the stage of intervention, regulatory rules and different styles of enforcement in regulatory agencies in their relevance for regulatory enforcement. The paper draws on the existing enforcement literature, especially the responsive regulation model and the regulatory space and dispersed regulatory action paradigms and reflects on similarities and differences in this specified case of a Mexican agency. While identifying a range of characteristics of the agency's enforcement process, it also finds there is a lack of studies of certain of the main characteristics identified. These differentiating characteristics are studied and analysed; its causes are explored in relation to the specific environment of developing civil law background and other environmental features that directly affect the possibility of achieving regulatory objectives. The paper analyses the agency's experience through time and space with special attention to the study of how it has been trying to adapt to a scenario that looks adverse to its objectives. The identification is made of an original style of enforcement which is characterized as Creative Regulation as a result of its adaptation process and the agency's drive to achieve certain objectives.

Municipal strategies for introducing housing on industrial estates as part of compact-city policies in the Netherlands

Promoting mixed-use development is part of policies aimed at enhancing urban quality. Until recently, however, industry and housing have rarely been found together in the same development as there is a long tradition of keeping these functions separate. As part of a compact-city policy, Dutch local authorities are in the process of introducing housing on single-function industrial estates developed after World War II. Local governments are looking for strategies and instruments that will help them to redevelop these sites towards mixed-use areas combining housing and industry. This paper analyses case studies on the Binckhorst and Plaspoelpolder sites in and around The Hague and the Buiksloterham site in Amsterdam in relation to the following themes: attractiveness of the site as a location for the introduction of housing, the environmental loading caused by combining industry and housing, and municipal strategies for redevelopment of the industrial estates. It was found that traditional amenities such as waterfronts can provide ample potential for housing development; that while there may be plenty of room for housing, much of it will be subject to unacceptable environmental hazards; that a cooperative enforcement style is used to mutually adapt the local interpretation of environmental standards to the interests of the mixed-use areas; and that in all cases, local government became strongly involved in the property market in order to internalize the external effects of investments in the area.

The Creative Regulation Process of the Mexican Competition Commission

This article analyses how regulatory objectives are achieved by the Mexican Federal Competition Commission. An emphasis is laid on the analysis of the environmental and institutional settings and the implications they have in its enforcement process and regulatory activity. The analysis includes the issue of regulatory decision making, the stage of intervention, regulatory rules and different styles of enforcement in regulatory agencies in their relevance for regulatory enforcement. The article draws on the existing enforcement literature, especially the responsive regulation model and the regulatory space and dispersed regulatory action paradigms and reflects on similarities and differences in this specified case of a Mexican agency. While identifying a range of characteristics of the agency’s enforcement process, it also finds that there is a lack of studies of certain of the main characteristics identified. These differentiating characteristics are studied and analysed; its causes are explored in relation to the specific environment of a developing civil law background and other environmental features that directly affect the possibility of achieving competition regulatory objectives. The article analyses the agency’s experience through time and space with special attention to the study of how it has been trying to adapt to a scenario that looks adverse to its objectives. The identification is made of an original style of enforcement which is characterised as “Creative Regulation” as a result of its adaptation process and the agency’s drive to achieve certain objectives. This article has been shortlisted for the 1st World Competition Young Writers Award.

Good cop—Bad cop: Problem officers, law enforcement culture, and strategies for success

Police officers are the only professionals mandated by society to use discretionary coercive physical force as a necessary component of fulfilling their duty to maintain public safety and uphold the law. If community policing is to prevail as an effective and credible style of law enforcement, the legitimate use of competent police authority will continue to be a vital issue. This article analyzes the types of officer problems and problem officers that can harm community policing efforts. These include (1) individual factors, such as attitudes, personality traits, and psychological disorders; (2) police-citizen interaction factors, such as interpersonal dynamics and community attitudes; and (3) organizational factors, such as training and supervision, departmental philosophy, and the “cop culture.” The article then offers practical strategies for improving officer performance, including (1) selection and screening of officers; (2) training and supervision; (3) fitnessfor-duty evaluations; (4) effective supervision and discipline; (5) coaching and counseling strategies; and (6) the most productive use of psychological services. Throughout this discussion, the concept of the police officer as a law enforcement professional is emphasized as essential for guiding public safety policy into the 21st century.

Zero Tolerance for the Industrial Past and Other Threats: Policing and Urban Entrepreneurialism in Britain and Germany

Recent years have witnessed changes in the discourses and practices of urban policing towards 'quality-of-life offences' and the presence of unwanted groups (beggars, drug-users) in city centres. The authors argue that the change towards a more 'law-and-order' style of law enforcement, often referred to as Zero Tolerance Policing, has to be examined not solely as a means of crime prevention but also in the context of interurban competition. Thus, it constitutes a moment of the urban political economy, often referred to as urban entrepreneurialism : especially for old industrial cities, safe and clean city centres are regarded as a necessary asset for competition and image promotion. These arguments are developed by discussion of two empirical studies: Glasgow, Scotland, and Essen, in the Ruhr region in Germany.

At the Regulatory Front Lines: Inspectors' Enforcement Styles and Regulatory Compliance

This study contributes to the understanding of how those street-level bureaucrats who are at the front lines of regulatory enforcement help to bring about compliance with regulations. Hypotheses concerning the impact of inspectors' differing enforcement styles on compliance are examined for data concerning municipal enforcement of building codes. Building inspectors vary in their day-to-day style of interaction with homebuilders with respect to facilitationhow helpful and supportive they are-and with respect to formalism-how rigid and picky they are. We fail to find a direct effect of differing enforcement styles on compliance. However, enforcement styles influence homebuilders' knowledge of rules and the degree of cooperation between homebuilders and inspectors. We attribute the limited impact of enforcement style to inconsistencies in inspection that tend to immunize homebuilders to stylistic differences among inspectors. This suggests a downside to responsive regulation as a preferred mode of regulatory enforcement: such inconsistencies undermine regulatees' understanding of rules and the development of shared expectations concerning compliance.

At the Regulatory Front Lines: Inspectors' Enforcement Styles and Regulatory Compliance

At the Regulatory Front Lines: Inspectors' Enforcement Styles and Regulatory Compliance

Enforcement Styles, Organizational Commitment, and Enforcement Effectiveness: An Empirical Study of Local Environmental Protection Officials in Urban China

The authors investigated the relationship between enforcement styles and perceptions of enforcement effectiveness in China by surveying three groups of environmental protection bureau officials from the major cities of Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Dalian. In general, it was found that organizational commitment partially mediates the relationship between the enforcement style of prioritization and perceptions of effectiveness. In this case, mediation and direct effects work together such that prioritization has by far the greatest positive total effect. In contrast, a coercive enforcement style is more completely mediated by organizational commitment, but this relationship is negative (that is, a coercive style appears to reduce organizational commitment, leading to lower perceptions of enforcement effectiveness). Although some differences are noted among the three samples, the overall pattern suggests that other enforcement styles (formalism, education, and external influence) appear to be much less influential in shaping perceptions of enforcement effectiveness.

Enforcement Styles Among Environmental Protection Officials in China

Researchers examining regulatory enforcement have found that enforcement styles tend to be contextually determined in Western countries, which has resulted in a divergence in regulatory approach at both the national and local levels. Given the dearth of regulation research in non-democratic regimes, this paper makes an initial attempt to fill the gap by studying the impact of regional variations in regulatory enforcement in China. Accordingly, the effects of external support and organizational factors on the preferences for enforcement styles of environmental officials in three Chinese regions were examined. It was found that the strength of these influences on enforcement style dimensions is more variable than was anticipated. Generally, the patterns of relationships for Guangzhou and Chengdu were similar, while those for Dalian appear to reflect its unique environmental, economic and political conditions. Public support appears to promote several dimensions of enforcement style (i.e., education, prioritization, coercion) in Guangzhou and Chengdu; however, in Dalian the influence of government was greater than that of public support. The effects of internal factors were even more variable and probably reflect unique characteristics and priorities within each agency. Overall, the results suggest that caution is warranted when interpreting current findings about China that have used samples from a single region and that enforcement agency directors in nondemocratic regimes must take into account a complex array of contextual factors in attempting to promote a particular style of enforcement.

Reconstructing Criminality in Latin America

Reconstructing Criminality in Latin America

Motivation for Compliance with Environmental Regulations

AbstractA combination of calculated, normative, and social motivations as well as awareness of rules and capacity to comply are thought to foster compliance with regulations. Hypotheses about these factors were tested with data concerning Danish farmers' compliance with agro‐environmental regulations. Three key findings emerge: that farmers' awareness of rules plays a critical role; that normative and social motivations are as influential as calculated motivations in enhancing compliance; and that inspectors' enforcement style affects compliance differently from that posited in much of the literature. It was also found that formalism in inspection can be helpful to a point, while coercion by inspectors can backfire. Taken together, these findings counter arguments concerning the harm of legalism and the benefits of flexible enforcement. This study contributes to the understanding of factors that shape compliance with social and environmental regulations. © 2001 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Continuity versus change: enforcing Scottish pollution control policy in the 1990s

A distinctive feature of the recent literature on environmental regulation in the UK is the emphasis placed upon the influence of the European Union (EU) in transferring a process characterized by informality, pragmatism and flexibility to a more formal footing. By comparison, relatively little attention has been paid to the domestic policy context for the formalization of pollution control policy. This paper addresses this shortcoming in the literature by charting the evolution of environmental regulation within a specifically Scottish context during the 1990s. It does so by examining water pollution control, as undertaken by Scotland's River Purification Authorities (RPAs) prior to the creation of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on 1 April 1996. The paper argues that, in this area of pollution control, the formalization of the regulatory process was primarily attributable to developments emanating from the domestic policy environment as opposed to external pressures exerted by the EU. It goes on to assess the impact of RPAs' more formal enforcement style upon the regulatory process. Finally, the paper examines whether the trend towards formal enforcement has continued under the auspices of SEPA. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Continuity versus change: enforcing Scottish pollution control policy in the 1990s

A distinctive feature of the recent literature on environmental regulation in the UK is the emphasis placed upon the influence of the European Union (EU) in transferring a process characterized by informality, pragmatism and flexibility to a more formal footing. By comparison, relatively little attention has been paid to the domestic policy context for the formalization of pollution control policy. This paper addresses this shortcoming in the literature by charting the evolution of environmental regulation within a specifically Scottish context during the 1990s. It does so by examining water pollution control, as undertaken by Scotland's River Purification Authorities (RPAs) prior to the creation of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) on 1 April 1996. The paper argues that, in this area of pollution control, the formalization of the regulatory process was primarily attributable to developments emanating from the domestic policy environment as opposed to external pressures exerted by the EU. It goes on to assess the impact of RPAs' more formal enforcement style upon the regulatory process. Finally, the paper examines whether the trend towards formal enforcement has continued under the auspices of SEPA. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.