The Hidden Costs of Regulatory “Spring Cleaning”: Are We Solving Bureaucratic Bloat or Making It Worse?
Modern democracies are drowning in rules. From environmental protections to labor laws, governments keep layering regulations to address societal challenges—a relentless process scholars call “policy accumulation.” The result? Overburdened public administrations struggling to implement policies effectively. Imagine a city council so bogged down by zoning codes that approving a new playground takes years. Or an environmental agency so swamped by reporting requirements it can’t prioritize fighting pollution. This isn’t dystopian fiction—it’s today’s reality. To tackle this, many OECD countries have adopted Regulatory Offsetting Schemes (ROSs). The idea sounds simple: for every new rule introduced, an old one must go. Think of it as bureaucratic spring cleaning. Germany’s “one-in, one-out” law, and France’s stricter “one-in, two-out” mandate are prime examples. But here’s the catch: while ROSs promise to declutter the regulatory landscape, their long...