One of the most important, yet least publicly prominent, aspects of recent austerity policies in the United Kingdom is the accompanying antiregulatory pressure put forth amid claims that regulation rollbacks would free up private capital and increase economic activity. This book offers a powerful counterargument, showing clearly how economic and social welfare are inconsistent with the sort of corporate freedom imagined by antiregulatory activists and offering an empirical and theoretical analysis of regulatory reform within the context of large-scale social change. Ultimately, Steve Tombs argues, we need to radically rethink regulation in order to address key conceptual, practical, and policy issues.
Steve Tombs is professor of criminology at the Open University.
Steve Tombs is Professor of Criminology at the Open University. He has a long-standing interest in the incidence, nature and regulation of corporate and state crime, and has published widely on these matters. He works closely with the Hazards movement in the UK, was a founding member and Chair of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, and is on the Board of Inquest.