Introduction: Politics and regulation

This short text serves as an introduction to this special issue of Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, which focuses on the complex and complicated relationship between politics and regulation. Discussing this evolving relationship is somewhat of a taboo topic, at least in the academic literature. Consequently, this special issue is not composed of typical academic papers, but of personal reflections upon the experiences of ‘‘academic practitioners.’’ Most of the authors of this special issue, including myself, have held academic positions at the same time as being members of regulatory authorities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Continental Europe.