Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Administrative Procedures, Bureaucracy, And Transparency: Why Does The Fcc Vote On Secret Texts?, Scott J. Wallsten

Scott J. Wallsten

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not reveal the text of regulations on which it votes. Instead, after the vote the Commission grants the relevant bureau “editorial privileges” to continue drafting the order. It then releases the final version days, weeks, or even months after the vote. As a result, it is not possible to know if everything in the final rule was actually subject to a vote. In particular, it raises the question of whether the delay between vote and publication is truly for “editorial” changes or if more substantive changes occur after the vote.

In this paper, …

Harmonising And Regulating Financial Markets, Mads Andenas

Mads Andenas

This paper discusses problems of harmonisation and regulation of the European Internal Financial Market. The argument is that the current division of powers between the EU and Member States is not achieving sufficient harmonisation to develop an internal market. The obstacles to the Internal Financial Market presented by national regulatory and supervisory regimes remain too high, and the EU minimum standards and mutual recognition regime has failed to lower these barriers sufficiently. There is a need for broader based regulatory and supervisory institutions, undertaking at a European level what cannot effectively be done at a national level, including providing a …

Regulating And Deregulating The Public Utilities 1830–2010, Judith Clifton Dr.

Judith Clifton

History can provide invaluable insights into important issues of the economic and social regulation of utilities, and offer lessons towards future debates. But the history of utility regulation – which speaks of changing, diverse and complex experiences around the world – was, unfortunately, sidelined or marginalised when economists and policymakers enthusiastically embraced the question of how to reform the utilities from the 1970s. This paper provides an overview of the three, overarching, `waves' of utility regulation from the nineteenth century to the present, documenting how, when and why the ways in which the roles of the state, the market and …

From National Monopoly To Multinational Corporation: How Regulation Shaped The Road Towards Telecommunications Internationalisation, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Francisco Comín

Judith Clifton

One of the consequences of major regulatory reform of the telecommunications sector from the end of the 1970s – particularly, privatisation, liberalisation and deregulation – was the establishment of a new business environment which permitted former national telecommunications monopolies to expand abroad. From the 1990s, a number of these firms, particularly those based in Europe, joined the rankings of the world's leading multinational corporations. Their internationalisation was uneven, however: while some firms internationalised strongly, others ventured abroad much slower. This article explores how the regulatory framework within which telecommunications incumbents evolved over the long-term shaped their subsequent, uneven, paths to …

The Political Economy Of Telecoms And Electricity Internationalization In The Single Market, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Revuelta Julio

Judith Clifton

As a consequence of liberalization policies in the European Union (EU), a number of formerly inward-looking incumbents in telecommunications and electricity transformed themselves into some of the world’s leading Multinationals. The relationship between liberalization and incumbent internationalization, however, is contested. Three political economy arguments on this relationship are tested. The first claims that incumbents most exposed to domestic liberalization would internationalise most. The second asserts that incumbents operating where liberalization was restricted could exploit monopolistic rents to finance internationalisation. The third argument claims that a diversity of paths will be adopted by countries and incumbents vis-à-vis liberalization and internationalization. Using …

Evaluating Eu Policies On Public Services: A Citizens' Approach, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes

Judith Clifton

This article evaluates EU policies on public services – particularly public network services - from the citizens´ point of view. It is first argued that citizens´ perceptions are important because the provision of fundamental services is at stake and because they constitute the infrastructure necessary for social and economic development. Citizens’ “voice” can, therefore, be known, analysed and used in the design of improved policy on public services along with other indicators. Changing EU policy on public services is synthesised and classified into two main phases in section two. Citizen satisfaction with public services as revealed through surveys from 1997 …

The Need For Better Analysis Of High Capacity Services, George S. Ford, Lawrence J. Spiwak

GEORGE S FORD

In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) began to grant incumbent local exchange carriers (“LECs”) pricing flexibility on special access services in some Metropolitan Statistical Areas (“MSAs”) when specific evidence of competitive alternatives is present. The propriety of that deregulatory move by the FCC has been criticized by the purchasers of such services ever since. Proponents of special access price regulation rely on three central arguments to support a retreat to strict price regulation: (1) the market(s) for special access and similar services is unduly concentrated; (2) rates of return on special access services, computed using FCC ARMIS data, are …

‘Empowering Europe’S Citizens’? Towards A Charter For Services Of General Interest, Judith Clifton, Daniel Díaz-Fuentes, Francisco Comín

Judith Clifton

This article analyses the development of the European Union (EU) project of a Charter for Services of General Interest (SGI) from the mid-1990s to the publication of the White Paper on Services of General Interest and the draft European Constitution in 2004. Though service charters are often associated with New Public Management (NPM) reforms related to privatization, they are also an integral part of the process of EU institution building, and need to be understood alongside developments such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Using a four-stage model of international NPM convergence analysis four phases of the Charter for SGI …