Can the hidden hand of the market be an effective and legitimate regulator? The case of animal welfare under a labeling for consumer choice policy approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Parker, Christine; Carey, Rachel; De Costa, Josephine; Scrinis, Gyorgy
• 署名单位: University of Melbourne; University of Melbourne; University of Melbourne; University of Melbourne
• 刊物名称: REGULATION & GOVERNANCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1748-5983
• DOI: 10.1111/rego.12147
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 368-387
• 关键词: media representations; food system; governance; POLITICS

摘要

In Australia, labeling for consumer choice, rather than higher government regulation, has become an important strand of the policy approach to addressing food animal welfare. This paper illustrates the usefulness of regulatory network analysis to uncover the potentials and limitations of market-based governance to address contentious yet significant issues like animal welfare. We analyzed the content of newspaper articles from major Australian newspapers and official policy documents between 1990 and 2014 to show how the regulatory network influenced the framing of the regulatory problem, and the capacity and legitimacy of different regulatory actors at three flashpoints of decisionmaking about layer hen welfare in egg production. We suggest that the government policy of offering consumers the choice to buy cage free in the market allowed large-scale industry to continue the egg laying business as usual with incremental innovation and adjustment. These incremental improvements only apply to the 20percent or so of hens producing free-range eggs. We conclude with a discussion of when and how labeling for consumer choice might create markets and public discourses that make possible more effective and legitimate regulation of issues such as layer hen welfare.