ROGER KING is Visiting Professor at the Centre for Higher Education Research and Information at The Open University, UK, and a Higher Education Consultant. Previously he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside (now Lincoln). He writes and researches on comparative policymaking and regulatory governance.

• PART 1: ANALYZING THE REGULATORY STATE Regulation as a Mode of Governance The Development of the Regulatory State in the UK Governance in the Regulatory State The European Regulatory State Transnational Regulatory Governance PART 2: THE DIFFERENT WORLDS OF THE REGULATORY STATE: POLICY DOMAINS IN THE UK Higher Education: The Ambiguous Regulatory State Healthcare: The Insuring Regulatory State Accountancy and Law: The Private Regulatory State Conclusion

'It is very successful. [The author] has spotted the need for an accessible account of the whole regulation literature and has very successfully filled it [...] The text goes well beyond the introductory text level in locating so much of the regulatory literature in many of the classical themes of sociology, and many of the classic writers [...] of established writers on regulation I think only John Braithwaite has this sensitivity to its place in the wider history of social enquiry.' - Michael Moran, W.J.M. Mackenzie Professor of Government, University of Manchester, UK