Hutter, Bridget M. --- "Negotiating Social, Economic and Political Environments: Compliance with Regulation Within and Beyond the State" [2011] ELECD 944; in Parker, Christine; Nielsen, Lehmann Vibeke (eds), "Explaining Compliance" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Explaining Compliance

Editor(s): Parker, Christine; Nielsen, Lehmann Vibeke

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448858

Section: Chapter 14

Section Title: Negotiating Social, Economic and Political Environments: Compliance with Regulation Within and Beyond the State

Author(s): Hutter, Bridget M.

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

14. Negotiating social, economic and
political environments: compliance
with regulation within and beyond
the state
Bridget M. Hutter*

INTRODUCTION

This chapter focuses on a key finding of sociolegal research into compli-
ance, namely that it is a complex concept involving the negotiation of
legal, economic, political and social environments by the various parties
involved in regulatory dialogues. Compliance is the practical resolu-
tion of the tensions between risk and mainstream economic activities,
which results in an approach to compliance that is complex, flexible and
dynamic. We need to recognize the situated character of compliance
and that varying perceptions of risk influence its definition, assessment
and achievement. Regulation typically involves long term organizational
compliance rather than transitory temporary encounters with individu-
als. The situated views and definitions of compliance generated in every-
day encounters between regulators and business are in stark contrast to
the perspectives of efficiency-driven politicians and policy makers who
demand `compliance rates,' presupposing that determining compliance
with the law is a clear cut matter. Decades of sociolegal research have
taught us that the very nature of regulation does not easily permit such
clear cut decisions. This chapter draws on three empirical studies to illus-
trate the importance of understanding the situated and negotiated charac-
ter of regulatory compliance.
The first part sets the scene for the rest of the chapter by briefly explain-
ing the background for why compliance is a negotiated response to eco-
nomic, political and social contexts. The second and third parts of the
...