Styles of regulatory discretion: A comparative analysis of the British and Israeli education legislation

Abstract

Regulatory discretion is a central theme in the study of regulation and governance. However, little attention has been paid to the question of how countries vary in the way they design regulatory discretion. This article fills this gap by conceptualizing styles of regulatory discretion according to a novel conceptual framework that distinguishes between three dimensions of regulatory discretion: obligation, content, and procedure. Empirically, the article compares regulatory discretion in British and Israeli education legislation during the period 1948–2020. The findings reveal substantial differences in regulatory discretion styles between the two countries across all three dimensions of regulatory discretion. Accordingly, this article proposes several links between regulatory discretion and regulatory production that can be explored further. In doing this, the article points to the relationship between discretion practices and regulatory outcomes.