Coordinators: José Manuel Pureza and Maria Manuel Leitão Marques

The basic assumptions that define this area of research are the following:

a)We are experiencing a transition between two different modes of regulation: from state to post-state centred regulatory strategies;

b)The turbulence of this transitional period is expressed in different ways:

• Redesign of institutional models (with both institutional destruction and innovation);
• Increasingly selective access of citizens to the public goods provided by both old and new institutions;
• Growing asymmetries between the traditional scale of regulation (domestic and centralised) and the new scale of problems and challenges (global and disseminated);

The research developed in the last few years within this framework has focused on four major themes:

• New forms and scales of regulatory strategies;
• The changing role of the state: from government to governance?
• Judicial reform and access to law;
• Migrations and new demands for institutional performance.