EDITORIAL: BETTER REGULATION WITHOUT THE STATE

There has been mounting concern about the increasing level of regulation in the UK economy over the last decade or more. Regulation has significant costs and is difficult to repeal. The government has set up various bodies to examine deregulation and better regulation. This article and the other articles in this issue look at those approaches and ask whether the state should be involved to a lesser degree in regulation. In many areas, it may be appropriate for the state to withdraw altogether, either because the private sector can spontaneously develop better regulation than the state can or because the unintended costs of state regulation are so great.