The idea of capture argues that regulatory agencies will
invariably get "captured" by the industries that they regulate. This says that
industries will be the ones that care most about the regulations that the agencies
make. Therefore, they will try hardest to affect those regulations. In addition, the
regulators will be concerned with trying to make the industries happy because A) they
have to deal with the industries all the time and B) the industries often have influence
on the politicians who control the agencies.
By contrast,
the public interest theory argues more that regulation will actually work the way that
it is supposed to. Bureaucrats and politicians will make and enforce rules that will
protect the public. They will do so without being unduly influenced by the industries
that they are supposed to be regulating.
So I guess I would
say that the major difference is that the capture theory says agencies will be
controlled by the industries they regulate while the public interest theory says the
agencies will actually regulate effectively.
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