Elected versus Appointed Regulators

A key issue in political economy concerns the accountability structures put in place to select public officials. While the principle that legislators are to be elected is now a defining feature of modern democracies, there are some offices where a plurality of selection methods survive. A key example is the case of regulators. Typically, heads of regulatory agencies are appointed by politicians, creating an insulating layer between citizens and regulators. However, a number of U.S. states have injected a degree of populism into the regulatory process by requiring that the heads of their independent regulatory commissions be directly elected. Insurance regulation has a similar structure with several states also electing their insurance commissioners.[...]