Regulatory coverage: Theory and politics

A popular theory of economic regulation George Stigler's is currently the object of attention of western economists, political scientists, sociologists, and unfortunately considered only in a few works of russian scientists. The article provides a comparative analysis of the research approaches of representatives of the economic theory of regulation. The main message of theory - regulation is a product of and subject to the laws of supply and demand. The term «regulatory capture» originally meant that regulator created for in the public interests eventually promotes maximizing welfare of groups of interests in damage to both business, and society. There was a number of additional aspects, they became not only objects for scientific criticism, but also served to a further research of a role of the state in the course of acceptance and implementation of measures of economic policy. With this purpose, views of theory's lacunas are systematized: specification of conditions under which interest groups and industry to carry out "regulatory capture"; identification of interest groups, complementary groups of interests of the industry; representation of interest groups in politics as a result of unification of civil society and because of the "electoral illiteracy"; the motives of action of the regulator is the interests of society, ideological preferences, inclusion in a network of social interaction, etc. Despite these shortcomings, the theory of economic regulation is a complement to studies showing the «government failures». In this aspect regulatory capture should be understood as difficult enrollment of behavior models and the relations between groups of interests which activity has adverse political and economic effects for the state, business and society. Such understanding is promoted by a wide range of the reasons to vulnerability of the regulator to «capture»: asymmetry of information, inertness and disinterest in regulation, incompetence owing to absence in the adjustable sphere of skills, insufficiency of financial resources, technical complexity in regulation with the subsequent deregulation, administrative process, dependence on the previous way and some other. Since the 2000-ies, metaphor of "capture" takes on a new content from the view point of regulation's supply. The regulator in modern conditions has a more complex structure, not considered in the theory of economic regulation. The regulators are the group's interests in the face of governmental bodies and institutions and more complex groups as a result of consolidation of the state and business. The phenomenon of «state capture», as opposed to a subtle regulatory capture, getting enough empirical evidence of the destructive influence of private interests on the formation and implementation of policy decisions. This vision opens new horizons of design institutes and their adaptation to the needs of the state's economic policy.

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