Would you sit on a jury to review government regulations? Citizen oversight panels could make this process more open and democratic

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Samuel Bagg, University of South Carolina

(THE CONVERSATION) Who makes the rules that govern our daily lives? In a democracy, it’s natural to think that “the people” are in charge, or should be.

Of course, hundreds of millions of people can’t participate actively in governing day to day. Still, the idea of representative democracy is that those who make the rules are elected by, and accountable to, everyone else.

In fact, however, most national rules and regulations in the U.S. are made by unelected bureaucrats in administrative agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Environmental Protection Agency. And in three cases currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, the legitimacy of this system is under attack.

Rulemaking by independent experts has long been an integral part of government. Yet critics on both the left and the right worry about allowing unelected officials to exercise so much power. As a political scientist specializing in the complex...