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Student blog - Inaugural Lecture | Living in a World of Rules

11 February 2020

Written by Sanjana Balakrishnan, BSc Politics and International Relations student, UCL Department of Political Science

Living in a World of Rules

Professor ClaudioRadaelli’s focus is regulatory reform. As a member of the European Research Councilhis goal is to strike the balance between “red tape and red flags” to ensure that government rulesare their most effective in smoothly running society.

Radaelli starts with a bit of history about how he got into studying regulatory reform, mentioningthat what attracted him was a wave of regulatory reforms from the OECD and other internationalorganisations that got him to think about the difference between good and bad regulation.

Radaelli argues that one must critically engage with the status quo. He says the rationale ofregulatory policy is to “intervene in cases where the market is not performing efficiently so thatwe can not only address those failures but also promote public values.

With this understanding, he lists three aspects of creating regulation:
1. Regulation does not distribute financial resources
2. Regulation sets rules
3. Key resource is knowledge of those who are regulated

Further, he says good regulation is efficient, clear, targeted, accessible, and fair. With this, heurges that governments should move from quantity of rules to quality of them. From ProfessorRadaelli’s lecture I have understood that “living in a world of rules” has the potential to be
incredibly beneficial and useful or convoluted and corrupt. Large regulatory bodies can greatlyinfluence society. Thus, by learning how to navigate the world of regulatoryreform effectively,we can as Professor Radaelli noted, “organise ourselves for the future”.


Inaugural Lecture Series 2019/20

This lecture is part of the 2019/20 series for UCL'sFaculty of Arts & HumanitiesԻFaculty of Social & Historical Sciences. The series provides an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our professors who are undertaking research and scholarship of international significance, and offers an insight into the strength and vitality of the arts, humanities and social sciences at UCL.

All our lectures are free to attend and open to all. You don't have to be a UCL staff member or student to come along.

Lectures begin at 18:30 and are typically one hour long. A drinks reception will follow, to which everyone is welcome to join.

We look forward to meeting you at one of our events.

For information on other upcoming lectures please visit:/social-historical-sciences/news-events/inaugural-lectures