Regulatory policy balances producer and consumer interests to maximize political support.
Peltzman's 1976 extension of Stigler: regulators are not simply captured by producers but balance groups by political weight, which predicts partial rather than total capture.
In practice
- A licensing regime tightened after a scandal raises standards enough to satisfy the press, and sets the threshold where the three largest firms already sit.
- A price cap that protects consumers and preserves incumbent margins is what balancing produces, and neither side describes it as a win.
- Subject
- Law & Politics
- Essay
- Competing accounts of how power works