Escaping the “Regulatory State”: The Case of the Peruvian Tertiary Education Regulations

This article examines the regulation of tertiary education in Peru within the context of the pervasiveness of the regulatory state in liberal democracies. Peru’s experience with regulating tertiary serves as a cautionary example of the challenges posed by the regulatory state. Despite a decade of reforms, the outcome for Peruvians has been reduced competition, increased costs, limited access to education, and no discernible enhancement in quality. The article introduces the regulatory state concept and explores its origins and ongoing expansion. It argues that this expansion results from diverse factors such as economic shifts away from free markets and the implementation of welfare policies. The subsequent part outlines strategies for reducing regulatory burden, ranging from straightforward approaches to paradigm-shifting concepts. However, none of these alternatives proves fully effective. Finally, the authors scrutinize a Peruvian case study of tertiary education -in which the state controls half of the education offerings-. The article’s conclusion advocates for strengthening the role of the state to alleviate regulatory pressures. In this sense, a model closer to the Nordic model -wherein state intervention is distinct and strategic within a predominantly free-market economy- is the best way to escape the ubiquity quality of the regulatory state.