Legislatures Seize Licensing Power

Local legislatures are increasingly abolishing or neutering independent occupational licensing boards and taking direct control of issuance and enforcement. That transfer rewrites accountability: elected politicians replace profession‑dominated self‑regulators, changing incentives for consumer protection, enforcement, and capture. — If this pattern spreads, it will reshape regulatory capture debates, shifting the battlefield from appointed boards to legislatures and raising questions about politicization, transparency, and who actually protects consumers.