Hybridity in action: Accountability dilemmas of public and for-profit food safety inspectors in Switzerland

This chapter gives an empirical account of output performance in the hybrid implementation arrangement that characterizes the Swiss food safety sector. It makes three original contributions. First, as Havinga and Verbruggen point out, ‘governance is more than rule making’. We analyse how the interconnected processes of hybridized implementation, monitoring compliance and enforcement affect the achievement of policy goals at the frontline. Second, conceptually, we highlight the importance of multiple roles and accountabilities of both public and for-profit frontline enforcement agents (street-level bureaucrats) for understanding the effects of hybridization. Third, we scrutinize the regulation of veterinary drugs use for livestock in primary production – an under-researched but crucial aspect in addressing the risks to food safety presented by animal diseases and antibiotic resistance