Organisational structure and regulatory reform: the extension of competition in Britain and France

The article examines the empirical validity of ‘new’ or ‘historical’ explanations of policy‐making by looking at regulatory reform, and in particular the effects of differing organizational structures in Britain and France on the extension of competition in the telecommunications sector during the 1980s and 1990s. It argues that the nature of the widening of competition differed between the two countries, in terms of the processes of policy formation, the speed of change and the conditions applied to suppliers. These contrasts are linked to the dissimilar organizational structures that have existed in the telecommunications sector in both countries. Nevertheless, the article shows that in the two countries competition was extended. It thus concludes that while national organizational structures are important in explaining differences in policy in telecommunications between Britain and France, other factors need inclusion, notably the effects of European Union legislation, new ideas concerning competition, and transnational technological and economic factors, to account for the similarity in the direction of change towards greater competition in both countries.