Year: 2008
Type: other
Abstract: This paper responds to a question of regulatory compliance: Why do similar actors comply with regulations at one time and place, but not in another? The paper attempts to fill the gaps in traditional compliance theories and argues that when identity concerns prevail, compliance behavior is a manifest expression of two-fold socio-political relationship that arises from interactions among regulatees, and between formal regulators and the regulated. The comparative case studies presented here are based upon participant observation. To provide interviewees with settings that foster freer responses, many interviews were conducted in informal, social locations. Collected free-flowing narratives were complemented by more structured questions related to environmental regulations at hand. The research reveals that although regulated entities are sometimes instrumentally rational or norms-oriented, they also base their behavioral choices on situated judgments in ways that are more varied and changing than existing compliance theories have suggested. The paper highlights how the social relations of actors are manifested in identities of self and others, and in turn translate into compliance choice making.
Author: Eungkyoon Lee
Language: English
Subfield: Public Administration
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W189827745