Regulating the environment: Changing from constraint to gentle coercion

Abstract This article examines the changes in regulatory practices which have taken place in Denmark over the last twenty years. Danish environmental policy has been subject to several rounds of regulatory reform, aimed at streamlining existing regulation and making it more effective. Several new policy instruments have in this process been added to the regulatory repertoire, increasing the flexibility of the regulatory system. The strategic approach to the development and implementation of environmental policy, adopted by the Danish government, marks a change of regulatory regime, i.e. a change in the way environmental problems are perceived and in the choice of instruments to remedy these problems. The article argues that this is the result of the regulatory learning processes, and that the emerging regulatory regime, based on cooperation, represents a different way of harnessing the market forces than traditionally advocated. The article concludes that this regulatory regime opens up for a more systemic approach to preventing pollution.