RegNet Research Paper Series Vol. 3 No. 3

RegNet texture
RegNet texture

Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) Research Papers

Editor: Jeroen van der Heijden

Date: January 2015

Edition: Vol. 3, No. 3

RegNet Research Paper No. 2014/69

Why the Political System Needs New Media

Ian Marsh, Regulatory Institutions Network, Australian National University (ANU) and University of Tasmania; Sam McLean, GetUp!

This paper describes the roles that new media might play in rebuilding links between Australia’s diverse publics and the formal political system. We will show that democratic engagement has been hollowed out. This is partly an unintended consequence of the significant (broadly bipartisan) policy reorientation that has occurred since 1983; and partly a consequence of the new diversity in Australian society. Rebuilding links between the formal system and its publics is critical if the quality of democratic experience is to be restored. Further, this is twofold challenge - one aspect of which concerns access to the formal political system and the other ensuring that new media platforms are readily available to citizens.

RegNet Research Paper No. 2014/70

What Roles are There for Government in Voluntary Environmental Programs?

Jeroen van der Heijden, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), ANU

This article seeks to understand to a greater extent why and how governments are involved in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs). A better understanding of the role(s) of government in VEPs is of relevance because the current VEP literature considers such involvement one of the key conditions that may explain VEP performance. Building on the existing VEP literature, the article maps, describes and contrasts the roles of governments in 40 VEPs in the building sector in Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the United States. It finds that governments are involved in almost all of these VEPs (95 per cent) and that governments predominantly take up traditional roles (i.e. initiating and leading VEPs and monitoring and enforcing VEPs), sometimes combined with innovative roles (i.e. supporting VEPs, or assembling VEPs). This, the article argues, leaves opportunities for other modes of involvement unexplored, particularly those in which governments take up only innovative roles in VEPs.

RegNet Research Paper No. 2014/71

Philippine Prison Gangs: Control or Chaos?

Clarke Jones, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) ANU; Raymund E. Narag, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Southern Illinois University Carbondale; Resurrecion S Morales, Bureau of Corrections, Muntinlupa City, Philippines

This paper examines whether an unofficial strategy of using prison gangs for prison control in the Philippines correctional system could ever be considered an effective and appropriate management tool. Contemporary literature on prison gangs usually deems them as detrimental to an inmate’s prospects for rehabilitation and disruptive to the smooth running of penal institutions. However, from ethnographic research conducted by the authors on prison gangs in New Bilibid Prison (NBP), the largest maximum security prison in the Philippines, an alternative perspective on prison gangs is provided. Based on the authors’ unique access into the Philippine prison system, they argue that prison gangs in this system have become functionally important to both inmates and prison administrators. Despite serious prison rule violations, prison gangs in NBP provide a system of self-governance, prison order and a network of social support in the overcrowded and deprived prison conditions.

RegNet Research Paper No. 2014/72

Applications of Responsive Regulatory Theory in Australia and Overseas: Update

Mary Ivec, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), ANU; Valerie Braithwaite, Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), ANU

This update of Applications of Responsive Regulation (2010) 1 provides an expanded set of examples of responsive regulation applications or aspects of responsive thinking, both in Australia and overseas. At a time when deregulation is on the political agenda in Australia and other parts of the world, we considered it useful to review:

  • the range of responsive regulation applications;

  • aspects of and developments in responsive regulatory practice; and

  • links to users’ websites across areas of regulation.

The purpose is to facilitate discussion and the exchange of ideas around better regulation. We hope it will be useful to practitioners and policy makers around the world who are interested in regulation and contribute to building a network of responsive regulation innovators and developers.

All previous papers published in the RegNet Research Paper Series are available for download on the RegNet SSRN page.

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