Administrative Regulation-Making: Contrasting Parliamentary and Deliberative Legitimacy

While it is clear that administrative regulations can control matters that are morally or politically controversial, the processes by which they are made in Australia do not generally require transparency or public participation, the primary features of deliberative democracy. This aspect of Australian law is similar to other Westminster-based parliamentary systems. This article compares regulation-making processes in Australia with regulation-making in the United States, a system that is recognised by administrative law scholars to be focused on deliberative democracy. The purpose of the comparison is to highlight the distance between Australian regulation-making systems and a system based on deliberative democracy principles, and to develop an understanding of the regulatory contexts in which such deliberative systems could be established in Australia.