Guarding the guardians: How to manage regulator appointments and removal

The state is broken up into three co-equal branches — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. When this “separation of powers” is maintained, where the three roles are not blurred, it becomes easier to build a capable and accountable state. But life is not so simple. There are situations where sophisticated political thinkers have advocated some blurring of the strict separation of powers. This is seen with Statutory Regulatory Authorities (SRAs), which typically fuse two branches of the state (in advanced economies) and three branches of the state (in India).