Government, Business and Regulation

Abstract

Governments have long had the role of establishing and maintaining the rules that shape the behaviour of individual firms and the economy as a whole. It would be no exaggeration to say that without regulation, businesses as we know them could not operate. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a functioning economy without a standardised currency, fixed weights and measures, enforceable commercial contracts and so on. In addition to these economy-wide measures, governments have also, over the centuries, enacted measures regulating specific industries, trades and activities. While regulation has always been a fact of life for business, it has become even more important in recent years as business has become responsible for the delivery of more and more key services. Regulation has also followed business trends and become more globalised. Somewhat ironically, at the same time as regulation has become a more important function of government, governments have also been under pressure to reduce regulation under the slogan of (cutting red tape'.