Effective Governance Designs of Food Safety Regulation in the EU : Do Rules Make the Difference?

This books provides insights on regulatory effectiveness in the field of food safety, by focusing on the variety of institutional factors affecting regulatory outcomes. Drawing upon the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, it investigates differences in effectiveness of food safety regulation and explains them by differences in domestic governance designs, by applying Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The empirical focus of the book is the food safety governance designs of 15 EU Member States, which are investigated through the collection of an original dataset inclusive of measures of independence and accountability of the domestic food safety agencies, of policy capacity and of food safety delivered. The results show the prominent role of the institutional dimension of policy capacity in producing regulatory effectiveness, in conjunction with an integrated model of distribution of the regulatory tasks. As to ineffective governance, the conjunction of low independence or low accountability with low institutional capacity produce ineffective responses--from back cover Preface Contents About the Author Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Regulatory Governance, Policy Capacity, and Effectiveness of Regulation Introduction Understanding Regulation and Its Governance Quality of Regulatory Designs Regulatory Effectiveness and Regulatory Failure Policy Capacity Risk Regulation and Its Governance This Contribution References Chapter 2: Institutional Analysis of Regulatory Designs Introduction The Institutional Analysis and Development Framework: A Review The Institutional Analysis of Food Safety Regulatory Designs The Explanatory Model: Defining the Explanantes Independence and Accountability of Risk Assessment Institutional Separation of Regulatory Functions Institutional Capacity of Risk Management Conclusion References Chapter 3: The Research Design: Ontological and Methodological Questions Introduction Causal Mechanisms: Definitions and Theoretical Approaches The Methodological Question Qualitative Comparative Analysis: The Technique Case Selection Food Safety Regulatory Designs of the EU15 References Chapter 4: Gauging the Effectiveness of Food Safety Regulation Introduction What Is Effective Regulation? The Effectiveness of Food Safety Regulation: Existing Dimensions and Measures Towards a Different Operationalization of Effectiveness References Chapter 5: Gauging Differences in National Governance Designs Introduction Independence and Accountability of Risk Assessment Institutional Separation of Risk Assessment from Risk Management Institutional Capacity of Risk Management Conclusion References Chapter 6: Effective Governance of Food Safety Regulation Introduction Calibration Institutional Separation of Risk Assessment from Risk Management Formal Independence of Risk Assessment Formal Accountability of Risk Assessment Institutional Capacity of Risk Management Regulatory Effectiveness Analysis of Necessity Sufficient Conditions for Effective Governance of Food Safety Regulation Sufficient Conditions for Ineffective Governance of Food Safety Regulation Discussion of the Results References Chapter 7: The Conjunction of Capacity and Quality of Regulatory Designs: Lessons for Effective Governance Designs Introduction Main Findings and Implications On the Shoulders of the IAD Framework Scope Conditions Conceptual and Operational Responses Future Research Agenda References Appendix Index