Background

• All governments that preside over modern economies regulate markets and the businesses that operate within them. Health care, safety, labor, and environmental requirements are ways in which the government imposes regulations on business to protect the public when it may not serve the immediate goals of business. Regulation is also used to generate specific economic outcomes, namely growth and innovation. Governments enact laws to invoke or impede competition based on how the outcome is perceived to affect the health of the economy.
• Common discourse, especially within Anglo-American countries like the United States, presupposes the negative relationship between government regulation and market competition. This rationale, which sprung out of classical economic theory, led to a philosophy that claims markets function best when left alone; free from governments that are invariably tainted by special interests and the regulations created to further those interests. However, even the United States has built up a complex web of regulatory infrastructures that is not limited to antitrust laws, finance disclosure requirements, and entry barriers, all of which are designed to bolster the United States economy. Deregulation is touted as a common solution by those who claim economic hardship stems from inefficiencies associated with "big government," but studies have shown that the major deregulation movements in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan have resulted in more rules for businesses (Source: Steven K. Vogel).

Debate

Country Comparison

Recent Developments

Additional Information