Often we see government regulation as a necessary evil. We generally understand that government operations have grown sufficiently complicated to require day-to-day supervision of many relationships and transactions. But there is still a discomfort and suspicion about regulation’s reach: that it is perhaps too cozy with the interests it regulates, that it is a day late and a dollar short in terms our fast-moving economy, and that it is not sufficiently accessible to regular citizens. A review of our many regulated activities and their history, however, often reminds us of the background to regulation, which includes the role of religious and craft organizations in much of the early framework of regulation.

Marijuana Evangelist by Chris Yarzab on Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA

This discussion guide and the nine contrasting policy possibilities in it are intended to help spur discussion and to aid in exploring and developing ideas as well as address several basic concerns about regulation. Those concerns include:  the conduct of regulators, regulatory methods, public participation, matters of scale, and distribution of power.