Safety Regulation

Abstract

Since the late 1960s, Congress has enacted several laws that expand and amplify the role of the federal government in intervening in private market decisions on matters relating to the safety of products and workplaces. This legislation has increased the number of policy instruments available to the government with respect to safety issues, and has created several new government agencies with safety regulatory responsibilities. So dramatic has been the appearance, if not the reality, of increased government control over product and worker safety that these activities, along with environmental controls, recently have come to be called the "new regulation.”