Strategies for Regulatory Reform: Forward Compared to Backward Mapping

Most efforts to reform regulation have relied on a forward mapping strategy, which views policy design and implementation from the top down. The limited success of many such reform efforts suggests the need for an alternative approach, based on a backward mapping strategy. The advantages of such a strategy are that it brings affected stakeholders into the process of designing and implementing reforms; proceeds incrementally to build a consensus for change; and leads to proposals that allow greater discretion and flexibility at the ground level, which is the direction that nearly all critics of existing regulation argue should be taken. Recent initiatives in environmental policy illustrate the uses and potential strengths of a backward mapping strategy for regulatory reform.