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About
The Smarttape Centre for Regulatory Innovation is a project of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada. Early in the new century, IPAC Research recognized the growing importance of regulation as the optimum tool of the increasingly networked state (decentred, hollowed-out, horizontalized, post-modern, etc.). The rise of alternative service delivery options such as privatization, partnerships and special operating agencies would require a more extensive and sophisticated use of regulation.
At the same time, the deregulatory discourse of the New Public Management agenda, the pressures of globalization and the new information-communication technology, and the perceived failures and inadequacies of the Keynesian welfare state, contributed to an atmosphere of suspicion and ambivalence regarding regulation in many circles. If the newly emerging regulatory needs of the state were not to meet pervasive opposition and hostility such regulation would require innovative approaches that would avoid the rigidity and insensitivity of the standard bureaucratic model.
It was our recognition of this dilemma, and the importance of the innovative solutions required to resolve it, that led IPAC Research to establish itself as a catalyst for dialogue on innovative regulation. Our first step in this direction was the hosting of our highly successful international Red Tape to Smart Tape conference in 2002 that attracted prominent participants from ten countries and four continents. We have followed up the success of that conference with other bibliographic and research projects.
Central to our objective is the creation of this SmartTape Centre web site. It allows us to provide broad access to the fruits of our research in a variety of formats. It facilitates our function as a clearinghouse for information on events and ideas concerning regulatory innovation. And, it enables us to contribute to building a community of interested practitioners and scholars.
We welcome your interest and participation, and look forward to you joining our community’s collective endeavours to explore the means to exercise flexible, nimble regulation that creates conditions of maximum benefit to the public good.
