Regulation and business power: the case of public transportation in Santiago (2007-2017)

Abstract Full understanding of regulatory processes requires taking into account their political dimension, until now rarely considered in public administration literature. The concept of ‘business power’ developed in comparative political economy contributes to comprehend this dimension. The case study of the transport system “Transantiago” presented in this article demonstrates that businesses’ structural power is of special interest. The process tracing applied to the case of Transantiago, shows that the inability of the authorities to impose their preferences is mainly due to the structural constraints they faced. The effects of this inability are observed in the bidding process and in the phase of implementation of the regulation process.