Regulatory stewardship is a responsibility of both regulatory policy and operational functions. It involves adopting a whole-of-system, lifecycle view of the quality of regulation and its implementation, and taking a proactive and collaborative approach to the monitoring and care of the regulatory systems.

Presenting findings from a broad scoping of the international academic literature on regulatory failure, this literature review is structured according to four broad perspectives on regulation: public interest theory, public choice theory, private interest theory and institutional theory.

This research paper maps, explores, and interrogates the New Zealand Government Regulatory Practice Initiative (G-REG), as an example to obtain a better understanding of whether a standardised program can help to nurture and increase the professionalism of a community of public servants.

Building on a systematic evidence review of peer-reviewed articles published since 1992, the aim of the research paper is to assist executives, managers and frontline workers in regulatory organisations and units who are interested in responsive regulation.

The pervasive impact of regulation on society, coupled with regulatory failures often attributed to the performance of regulators, calls for the professionalisation of regulation as a practice, vocation, and discipline. To this end, governments and non-governmental organisations around the world have begun to explore pathways to build out the regulatory profession.