Critics of government regulation sponsor a wide variety of alternatives to command and control regulation. Others design alternative regimes to government regulation while deregulation options are under consideration. Further, Government agencies analyse alternatives to regulatory options in the process of regulatory impact analysis.
However, alternative measures to regulation should be considered more seriously and meaningfully in order to enhance regulatory reform in the Republic of Korea. Besides, they should be developed to implementable and practical versions in Korean legislative and administrative circumstances.
Firstly, private law actions should be considered as alternatives to regulation under theories of tort liability, strict liability, product liability, nuisance and punitive damage.
Economic incentives belong to other categories of alternatives such as taxes, subsidies, tradeable property rights, effluent charges and public ownership.
Further, various practices of self-regulation such as voluntary standards programs and peer review systems have to be selected and refined instead of command and control regulations.
Compensatory remedies after the occurrence of certain risk could be another category of alternative.
Finally, government influence short of regulation has to be used for alternatives to regulation. This influence can occur in the form of procurement contracts, publicity and education, and various forms of guidance and coercion.
We have to use these alternatives for successful regulatory reform in the Republic of Korea. For this purpose, I propose the following conditions to satisfy in the first place.
Firstly, the Korean Government should regenerate current Regulatory Impact Analysis processes in order to justify adopting alternatives to regulation adequately.
Secondly, reformers should have broader jurisdiction for adopting alternatives to regulation because alternatives often exceed jurisdiction of one or two administrative agencies. In fact, powerful mechanisms for policy coordination should be established for this purpose. An organization that has presidential authority or administrative power of the Prime Minister could be established.
Thirdly, as these alternatives lack completeness compared to command and control regulations, we need to supplement alternative measures with other alternatives or relatively weak tools of command and control regulations.