Independence And Regulation: An Evaluation Of Independent Regulatory Agency Experiences In The United States

The transformation from traditional common law regulation to modern administrative state regulation has been a gradual process. The creation of independent regulatory agencies began by asking the question: How can big business be made to serve the public interest in a modern democratic society?This is the question that led to the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in 1887. As the first Independent Regulatory Agency (IRA), the ICC became the model for future independent regulatory agencies. When a new kind of agency was entrusted with the government's responsibility to regulate, there arose a unique institution-the IRA. With the development and subsequent modification of the IRA, the responsibility of regulation came to be realized by setting up IRA's marking a change from traditional common law regulation to modern administrative state regulation to implement the law in the United States. In a word, the watchdog for common law regulation is the court, and the watchdog for modern administrative state regulation are administrative agencies, especially the IRA's.Beginning in the 1960s, regulation reformers started to attack the IRA's. The idea of regulatory reform and deregulation dominated government policy. During this period, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) were created as new kinds of IRA's drawing upon the ideas of the reformers. The new model involving changes in structure as well as a change from the traditional Control-Command model to a Market-Oriented model. This challenged the idea of regulation by IRAs. It is an open question whether IRA's will do a better job meeting the challenges of deregulation and re-regulation in the future. The history and experience of IRA regulations in the United States, especially the introduction of reforms based on a Market-Oriented model, provide a valuable lesson for other countries in their efforts to build modern governmental agencies. The IRA is created to meet the new social and economic problems. It is clear that the unique structure, including the committee, the staggered term, the restrict removal provisions, the respect paid to expertise, and different regulatory models, helps the IRA's become useful law enforcement tools. At the same time, by studying the process of reform based on deregulation, we should recognize that merely modifying the structure cannot easily guarantee the success of administrative commissions or goals set by law. The effectiveness of the IRA depends both on the structure of the agency and the people who are appointed in the changing political environments.It can be concluded that there are several variations in the form of the IRA. The form of the IRA can be varied for different situations and to achieve different goals. All of these forms of regulatory agencies will be valuable to consider with respect to the sixth executive branch reform recently begun in China.