PhD defence K. (Kees) Huizinga

Summary:

What defines optimally effective enforcement? This apparently simple question has given rise to extensive debate over the course of many decades. This study seeks a better understanding of the effectiveness of public regulatory enforcement agencies by taking a reverse approach: it focuses on regulatory enforcement ineffectiveness. It does so by using the concept of goal displacement, that is, situations in which an agency’s alignment with the original goals is severely or completely impaired. Both the conceptual and empirical explorations conducted suggest that goal displacement can gravely affect enforcement agencies, thereby significantly impairing their effectiveness. The explorations also provide indications of a number of distinct goal-displacement types. In addition, the study elaborates on the question why regulatory enforcement agencies may be especially vulnerable to goal displacement. The insights obtained shed a new light on efforts to increase regulatory enforcement effectiveness. Rather than isolated efforts aimed at increasing the effectiveness of individual approaches, a concerted effort aimed at decreasing ineffectiveness by containing multiple types of goal displacement appears to be more promising.