Systems Thinking and Regulatory Governance: A Review of the International Academic Literature

Abstract

This research paper presents findings from a broad scoping of the international academic literature on the use of systems thinking and systems science in regulatory governance and practice. It builds on a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles published in the top 15 journals for regulatory scholarship. The aim of the research paper is to introduce those working in a regulatory environment to the key concepts of systems thinking and systems science, and to discuss the state of the art of regulatory knowledge on these topics. It addresses five themes: (1) the evolution of systems thinking, (2) examples of systems thinking from the academic literature, (3) evidence of how systems thinking helps improving regulatory governance, and (4) the epistemic challenges and (5) ethical challenges that come with applying systems thinking to regulatory governance and practice.