REGULATION AS AN ARENA FOR SOCIAL POLICY EXAMPLES FROM ELECTRICITY IN ASIA

Abstract: Across the developing world, the notion of public utilities as social services is giving way new forms of economic organization around liberalized and commercialized sectors. Independent regulators are central to these new economic governance arrangements, which are intended to insulate utilities from government interference. By looking at the electricity sector in Asia, this paper explores the role of independent regulators as potential new arenas for social policy. I argue that with the re-organization of essential services around economic arguments, regulators will become increasingly important as a site for articulation of social concerns. I also suggest that the governance characteristics of regulatory agencies will be critical to articulation of social policy concerns in essential service sectors such as electricity or water. This paper examines the genesis of regulation in Asia, the institutional and governance structure of emergent regulatory bodies, and the available evidence on use of regulators as an instrument of social policy. Based on this analysis, the paper concludes that regulatory bodies are an important new site for political contest over social policy. Since these institutions are new, there is a small window of opportunity to shape their mandate and their institutional culture to be open to social policy concerns