Regulatory capitalism and the reassertion of the public interest

Neoliberalism has not led to the retreat of the state but instead to the restructuring of the state. This has led to new forms of governance where regulation represents the expanding part of government, and where the various modes of governance compete and sometimes are synthesized into global forms of regulation. It will be discussed where such forms have emerged, and where they are yet to emerge. In this new order, best described as regulatory capitalism, the regulatory state meets the regulatory society and actors’ demand for and supply of regulation is ever expanding. Rule- making, monitoring and enforcement are becoming increasingly important for democratic policy making. It is being asserted that varieties of regulatory capitalism are produced by the interaction of varying degrees of civil- and state-regulation and variations in the composition of the networks that serve as the backbone that transform autonomous jurisdictions to interdependent ones. Accordingly the paper distinguishes between Corporatists, Pluralist, Command & Control and Laissez-Faire forms of regulatory capitalism.