Understanding Governmental Regulations in Services

Government is a selected representation by people to voice their opinions in a fast and quick manner, and as a result, any action that government carries out must refer back to its citizens. Regulation of companies in all areas of commerce is no exception. Today, there are wide ranges of services that companies provide to citizens and are under the supervisions of the governments. From Securities and Exchange Commission to assure the safety of citizens' stocks to Food and Drug Administration on maintaining the quality of food and medications, the regulation prevails in various types of companies. The responsibility of regulating these companies can be divided into three types: upholding a certain level of standards, preventing monopoly, and protecting the consumers and economics as a whole. Food and Drug Administration is an example of regulatory actions that the government does to ensure that all items meet some type of high quality for the citizens. Prevention of monopoly is maintained by both legislative and justice branches of our government through provisions and court decisions. Protection of the consumers and economics as a whole is a large array of actions done by the government to make sure that citizens can and are receiving all the adequate services.

However, there are situations in which governmental responsibilities on regulations are limited. Government must also protect the incentives of companies as well. This means that too much intervention by the government into the market is deleterious to the development of new products and services by the corporations. In other words, government cannot be the "boss" and tell each company exactly what to produce, how many to produce, and other executive duties. Each company has a right to decide for itself on the production and management of items once the government approved the items for release. This restriction can also be viewed as an important part of democracy. Companies, too, can be considered as individual entities in legal terms, and have certain rights and privileges. They are under more stringent supervisions than individuals, but this strictness does not equate to the complete eradication of any right that the companies have.

The criteria for deciding the level of governmental regulations is on assessing the intent of companies to consumers. In other words, to determine if the government has a right to intervene, it must first assess whether certain actions by the companies were for consumers or not. If they were for consumers, then the government has a right to intervene and regulate all the qualities from these services to the citizens. This is why Napster, YouTube, and other online media websites are subjective to the governmental regulations because they are directly engaged in providing the services to the citizens. On the other hand, if the action of companies was more on the company itself, the government cannot just intervene and try to modify the actions. For example, although the government can criticize some Made in China toys that were determined to contain lead, it cannot fire the executive or change up the entire company even though such actions may result in a better level of services to the citizens. Only regulations by government are permitted to the actions that directly impact the citizens and services they receive. Indirect actions must receive permission through processes and negotiations with the companies.