High-quality regulation: its popularity, its tools and its future

Ideas regarding ‘better regulation’ and ‘high-quality regulation’ have become key aspects of contemporary administrative reform initiatives. What explains the popularity of this agenda? What does the comparative experience tell us about its impact? And what is its future? This article suggests that the contemporary debate is flawed by competing assumptions hiding behind a common language. A more promising approach is to embed high-quality regulation into regulatory conversations rather than imposing requirements through hierarchical means.