Tra i vincitori della Call for papers 2012, è da oggi disponibile nella collana “I Paper dell’Osservatorio” (ISSN 2280-8698) lo studio di Ahmed Badran dal titolo “The Role of Public Consultations in Regulatory Decision-Making: Thoughts and Reflections Based On Regulatory Decision-Making Mechanisms in the Egyptian Telecoms Market“. Il paper approfondisce il ruolo delle consultazioni pubbliche nei processi decisionali, con particolare riferimento al settore delle telecomunicazioni egiziano, utilizzando un approccio empirico basato su interviste a decision-makers, imprese regolate e associazioni.
Abstract
This paper builds upon empirical data collected from 42 interviews with decision-makers,
regulated companies, and civil society organisations in the Egyptian telecoms sector to investigate
the role of public consultations in regulatory decision-making processes. The analysis of regulatory
decision-making mechanisms in the Egyptian telecoms sector has indicated that public consultations
are regarded as integrated components of regulatory decision-making processes. Nonetheless, the
paper emphasises that the issue is not just about conducting these consultations in a ritualistic
fashion to legitimise regulatory decisions. The way in which the input of interested stakeholders
is taken into account by the sector’s independent regulator represents an important factor which
affects the quality of regulatory decisions, the image of the regulator, and the overall legitimacy of
regulatory governance. The analysis of the interview responses from the Egyptian case has indicated
that despite the best efforts of the regulatory agency to approach the interested stakeholders in
the telecoms sector via consultation processes, for many of them, the regulatory decision-making
process is still a black box. No one knows for sure what happens within the regulatory agency or
how their responses to public consultations are dealt with. In other words, they see no direct link
between their inputs and the final regulatory decisions. Following on from this the paper suggests
that more openness and transparency is required regarding the way in which public consultation
responses are dealt with and the relationship between public consultations in general and the final
decisions taken by the independent regulatory agency.
