“…The institutionalization of the regulatory state in Europe entailed new modes of governance and new technologies of regulation after liberalization, privatization, and re-regulation (Majone, 1996b;Coen and Heritier, 2005;Levi-Faur, 2005;Gilardi, 2008;Héritier and Eckert, 2008). Particularly since the 1990s, following the regulatory approach promoted by the European Union (EU) and the global trend of agencification, numerous independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) were established in member countries and at the EU level to regulate economic and social issues, such as banking and finance, telecommunications, civil aviation, railway services, food safety, the pharmaceutical industry, electricity, environmental protection, and personal data privacy (Thatcher, 2002c, d;Pollitt et al, 2004;Yesilkagit, 2004;Christensen and Yesilkagit, 2006;Laegreid, 2006a, b, 2007;Gilardi, 2008;Laegreid et al, 2008).…”