THE REGULATORS: Watchdog Agencies and the Public Interest

by Louis Kohlmeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 1969

A knowledgeable survey of the least known area in the federal system--the regulatory agencies, whose quasi-executive, quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial powers have made them into a nebulous and uncontrolled ""fourth branch of government."" Though the perspective is critical, the format is carefully descriptive, focusing primarily on the manner in which the agencies, originally created to protect consumers and free competition, have become servants to the industries they police, discouraging competition and maintaining high prices. Industry voices, indeed, have become so powerful that they bear heavily on the selection of the regulators, who are also subject to personal pressures from Congressmen and the President. The author further notes that the agencies' planning responsibilities tend to be subordinated to the promotion of their specific economic areas (communications, banking, trucking) with such results as the uncoordinated escalation of highways and air transport. Kohlmeier, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, makes a number of reform proposals, favoring the abolition of the agencies and the transfer of their functions to the Executive Branch. This would put the powers where the responsibilities are, under a rubric permitting a far greater public voice and limiting industry influences. How such a change could be accomplished when the present system serves so many powerful interests is unclear; the book suffers also from embracing too overwhelming a variety of structures and problems. It is, however, an admirably well-documented, low-keyed exercise in muckraking which should get a hearing from serious students of American government.

Pub Date: July 30, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION