The second-generation reforms are far more difficult in economies that relied on government ownership, economic planning, and managed pricing. Regulatory reform of economic activity in economies moving toward market orientation requires high levels of skill, continuous effort, and most importantly, democratic backing.
Regulations are a sub-category of laws.
Like all rules, they are two-edged. If they are not accepted, first by those at whom they are directed, and more generally by the polity in which they are applied, they will simply provoke evasion. Administered prices in many countries provoked black markets and parallel economies. Punitive regulation of private activity provoked extensive informal economies beyond the fiscal reach of the state. It could be argued that in many countries complex licensing regulations for private activity, whether economic or social or culture, enjoy no support among those who are the objects of the regulation, nor, indeed, among the general populace, which often is fully aware that these same regulations provide opportunities for rent-seeking and corruption.