Mark Seedenfeld* introduction By many accounts, the United States regulatory system is at a crossroads. Federal regulation is lambasted as pervasive, unduly burdensome, and inefficient, even as the American public clamors for increased protection against threats from sources such as toxic substances, bacterially tainted meat, and airplane crashes. Politicians, 1 academics, 2 and pòpularizers of criticism of the regulatory state3 tell us that if the federal administrative government is to serve the interests of the public effectively, we must reinvent that government. According to proponents of" reinvention," the key to effective reform is empowering all stakeholders—regulated entities, administrators, and intended beneficiaries alike—in a collaborative

* Professor, Florida State University College of Law. I owe thanks to Rob Atkinson, Ian Ayres, Jody Freeman, Bill Funk, Daniel GifFord, Walter Kamiat, Jim Rossi, and the FSU faculty who attended the workshop at which I presented this Article, for critical discussions and comments on previous drafts that improved the Article immensely. I am also indebted to Avner Ben Gera, Sharman Green, Martha Mann, Steven Johnson and Laurie Dietz for their dedicated research assistance, and to the Florida State University College of Law for funding my research. 1. See, eg, AL GORE, NATIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW, CREATING A GOVERNMENT that Works Better and costs Less: Status Report (1994)(describing the Clinton Administration's efforts to improve governmental efficiency). 2. See, eg, IAN AYRES & JOHN BRAITHWAITE, RESPONSIVE REGULATION: TRANSCENDING THE DEREGULATION DEBATE 4-6 (1992); Jody Freeman, Collaborative Governance in the Administrative State, 45 UCLA L. REV. 1, 3-4 (1997). 3. See generally, eg, PHILIP K. HOWARD, THE DEATH OP COMMON SENSE: HOW Law Is Suffocating America (1994)(alleging that the government has created laws devoid of common sense); DAVID OSBORNE & TED GAEBLER, REINVENTING GOVERNMENT: HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IS TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC SECTOR (1993)(outlining an effective approach to tap the power of the entrepreneurial process and the free market to create a more efficient government),