Regulatory capitalism suggests that the operation maintenance and development of the international political economy increasingly depends on administrative rules outside the legislatures and the courts.
[1] Although this patchwork varies widely across regions, nations, regimes, sectors, issues, and arenas, the general trend despite and beyond the process of liberalization is that of growth rather than decline of the role regulation in shaping policy and politics.
Moreover, the crisis of the interwar period as well as the process of democratic enfranchisement enabled a shift towards an increased role of the state, which in many domains took over two major functions of governance previously dominated by business – steering (leading, thinking, directing, guiding) and rowing (enterprise, service provision).
In regulatory capitalism, the role of steering is occupied by the state, while the functions of service provision and technological innovation are performed by business.
[4] In the 1990s it became more evident that while the state attempted to get rid of running things, it started to regulate more of them instead.