"Regulating regulatory interdependencies - a departmental processes approach"

My post-doctoral project draws on my previous PhD-research on the emergence and functioning of transnational regulatory networks. The post-doctoral project will further illuminate how transnational regulatory networks impact on the bureaucratic autonomy o f national regulatory agencies, focusing in particular on Norwegian regulatory agencies and their participation in European and international regulatory networks. A chief purpose of the project is to develop further a "departmental processes" perspective on regulatory agencies, emphasizing a view of regulatory agencies as capable of developing a semi-independent role of their own after being delegated key competences, i.e. beyond what may have been expected from delegating governments. Transnational netwo rks, in this perspective, may be a factor that enables them to develop this role. They may also, however, expose them to new constraints. These are all factors that I investigate in my post-doctoral project, of which my Ruhrgas-application concerns a surv ey-based cross-sectoral analysis of Norwegian regulatory agencies.