Co-operative Approaches to Regulation

In many countries a new concept is emerging as an alternative to command-and-control regulation: the concept of shared responsibility between governments and businesses. Governments and businesses are seeing a need for co-operation and partnership, rather than confrontation and adversarial relations. Increasingly, governments and businesses, often represented by business federations, are engaged in dialogue to find more effective and efficient solutions to conflicts between public and private interests, solutions in which multiple public and private bodies set goals, identify solutions, and monitor outcomes. This Occasional Paper contains case studies on different strategies of public/private co-operation from Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.