Moving beyond command-and-control: reflexivity in the regulation of occupational safety and health and the environment. Aalders, M.V.C.; Wilthagen, T. General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Direct regulation or command-and-control strategies by many policy-makers are considered to be unsuccessful in changing the conduct of companies threatening the safety and the health of their workers and polluting the environment. To improve occupational health and safety and the environment, they therefore stimulate self-regulatory policy strategies to make companies comply with social regulation. The relationship between external and internal modes of (self-)regulation is a subject gradually gaining the attention of researchers exploring alternatives for command-and-control regulation. But in a functionally differentiated society integration and coordination may be difficult to realize. The economic subsystem fails to acknowledge its social identity and, therefore, appears to be blind for its negative performance on the environment and the work place. The authors of this paper argue that moving beyond command-and-control can be feasible and desirable, at least to a certain extent, but that pitfalls are omnipresent. Solutions to several `regulatory dilemmas' are to be looked for. Sound empirical studies as well as a guiding theory are necessary. For this purpose the key concept of `reflexivity' is suggested, referring to the economic organisation's relationship with itself. In the paper the practical usefulness of this theoretical concept is explored against the background of regulatory practice in the areas of occupational safety and health and the environment. It is concluded that a mode of reflexive administrative law requires a `negotiating government', which adopts a mixture of strategies and learns to cope with issues like third party interests, access to information and enforcement.
This paper addresses the relationship between preventive systems of social control and regulation of the behavior of public bodies and private organizations. Illustrated with material on new developments in self‐regulation concerning environmental management in companies in the Netherlands, the author argues that a combination of stimulated (or “regulated”) self‐regulation and stringent enforcement policies is feasible and should lead to company compliance with environmental regulation. The article discusses the assertion that to reduce the social distance between government and individual citizen, between regulator and regulated, a mixture of policy instruments is needed, ergo: by involving societal groups of interested people in policy formation and self‐regulation, enhancing the creation of normative systems (involvement “by association”) on the one hand and the availability of adequate law enforcement procedures on the other, corporations, through responsive government regulation, could promote an adequate and successful preventive system of social control.
No abstract
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.