Market regulation versus co-management?: Two perspectives on regulating fisheries compared

The crisis of fisheries management is also a crisis of governability; somehow governments almost everywhere seem to run into trouble while managing fisheries. This article compares two alternative styles of regulation that are put forward as solutions to this crisis: market-based regulation and comanagement. In particular the contradiction is analyzed between an apparently strong theoretical basis for market-based regulation and actual practice which often opts for co-management. The theoretical basis of the market-based perspective is challenged and on the basis of an analysis of flatfishery management in the Netherlands, it is concluded that there are often sound arguments for restructuring the management responsibilities between public authorities and civil society.