Deregulation

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Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines deregulation as "the act or process of removing restrictions and regulations." Often, people use "deregulation" to describe a behavior of less control or decreasing interferance by government or state authority.

According to Wikipedia, "Deregulation is the process by which governments remove selected regulations on business in order to (in theory) encourage the efficient operation of markets. The theory is that fewer regulations will lead to a raised level of competitiveness, therefore higher productivity, more efficiency and lower prices overall. Deregulation is different from liberalization because a liberalized market, allowing any number of players, can be regulated to protect the consumer's right, especially to prevent de facto or even legal oligopolies."

Likewise, deregulation is "the reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry (investopedia.com)." Similarly, deregulation is "the process of removing regulatory authority over regulated companies. In a deregulated, environment rates and services are determined by the marketplace (Investionary.com)."

In higher education, deregulation usually refers to reductions in government regulation, minimization of financial support to public universities and the enhanced autonomy of universities.

References

Investopedia.com, from http://www.answers.com/deregulation&r=67

Investionary.com, from http://www.investionary.com/glossary/deregulation.htm

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, from http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=deregulation

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deregulation

 

Contributed by Hui-Hsia Yang