This book analyses the regulatory regimes that are now having their day of dominance. The traditional ideal of democracy as governance by the people has been overshadowed by the practice of governance over the people through extensive top-down regulatory measures. In the regulatory state, the concepts of regulation as authoritative rules and agree normative action lead to the important distinction between 'hard regulation' and 'soft regulation'. This book offers an account of the inherent vulnerability of the regulatory state caused by one-sided economic thinking and the predominance of governing through hard regulation. The implementation of policies has been taken over by technocratic, 'unelected' arm's length state bodies, which govern over more than by the people. This book focuses on contextual universal issues but with selected cases from Scandinavia and the regulatory European Union.