It is interesting to see how much anxiety the suggestion of a self regulating body provokes, but I guess this is a natural human reaction. We immediately fear that any kind of organization that has the power to regulate something will be akin to a big brother/dictatorship and encroach on our freedoms in a sinister way. However, the reality is never so grim, every healthy and systematic field has a regulating body. It is a healthy sign to have a regulating body, because it means that high standards of practice and ethics are maintained.
Here is a short wiki article on what self-regulating organization is:
A self-regulatory organization (SRO) is an organization that exercises some degree of regulatory authority over an industry or profession. The regulatory authority could be applied in addition to some form of government regulation, or it could fill the vacuum of an absence of government oversight and regulation. The ability of an SRO to exercise regulatory authority does not necessarily derive from a grant of authority from the government.
In United States securities law, a self-regulatory organization is a defined term. The principal federal regulatory authority—the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—was established by the Federal Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC originally delegated authority to the National Association of Securities Dealers (the NASD) and to the national stock exchanges (e.g., the NYSE) to enforce certain industry standards and requirements related to securities trading and brokerage. On July 26, 2007 the SEC approved a merger of the enforcement arms of the NYSE and the NASD, to form a new SRO, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In addition, Congress created the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (the MSRB) as an SRO charged with adopting investor protection rules governing broker-dealers and banks that underwrite, trade and sell tax-exempt bonds, 529 college savings plans and other types of municipal securities.
The American Arbitration Association is also an SRO with official, statutory status.
Because of the prominence of the SROs in the securities industry, the term SRO is often used too narrowly to describe an organization authorized by statute or government agency to exercise control over a certain aspect of the industry.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an example of an SRO that fills the vacuum left by the absence of government oversight or regulation. The NAR sets the rules for Multiple Listing Services and how brokers use them. Another example is the American Medical Association which sets rules for ethics, conflicts, disciplinary action, and accreditation in medicine.
Here are some examples of regulating bodies:
APA: American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA is the world’s largest association of psychologists, with more than 137,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students as its members.
Our mission is to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives.
APA seeks to advance psychology as a science, a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare. We do this by:
- Encouraging the development and application of psychology in the broadest manner.
- Promoting research in psychology, the improvement of research methods and conditions and the application of research findings
*Improving the qualifications and usefulness of psychologists by establishing high standards of ethics, conduct, education and achievement
*Increasing and disseminating psychological knowledge through meetings, professional contacts, reports, papers, discussions and publications[/i]
American Medical Association
Mission:
To promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health.
Core Values:
Leadership
Excellence
Integrity and Ethical Behavior.
Vision:
To be an essential part of the professional life of every physician.
The American Medical Association helps doctors help patients by uniting physicians nationwide to work on the most important professional and public health issues.
AMA policy on issues in medicine and public health is decided through its democratic policy-making process, in the AMA House of Delegates.
The AMA’s activities with for-profit entities are directed by AMA guidelines for corporate relationships, and its Internet products follow AMA guidelines for health and information websites.
Together, we will play an active role in shaping the future of medicine.
To support the delivery of high-quality, patient-centered care, the AMA seeks to empower physicians with the most robust data, resources, strategies and continuing professional development opportunities available. A central component of this effort is the work of the AMA-convened and physician-led Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement? (PCPI™), which develops clinically relevant quality measures for clinical practice. PCPI is also working to ensure that the right measures are included in health information technology (IT) offerings. To help physicians select and adopt health IT, the AMA is developing resources for physicians and providing expanded opportunities for CME on performance improvement.
In general a self-regulation organization/body is like a civil government setup within an official government, and thus it will mirror the actual mode of government that is official i.e., if you have a democratic government, the regulating body will also be democratic. There is legislation in place in the government for how self-regulating organizations should operate. In the examples above of the APA and the AMA, these are democratic organizations, and policies and guidelines are decided by a democratic process among professionals.
The Yoga alliance is another example of a self-regulating organization, in that it ensures certain standards for accrediting teachers, and a code of practice and ethics. Thus if we know somebody is accredited by the Yoga alliance, we know they are qualified to certain standards. However, the Yoga alliance as it currently stands is inadequate to address the needs of the Yoga community.
Self-regulation is obviously a lot better than government regulation, because self-regulation is more flexible, has greater freedoms and more easy to reform, while government regulation is enforced and has to go through a lengthy bureaucratic process to implement any reforms.
An SRO obviously has no powers to exercise any kind of authority over any organization that is not a member. For example many pseudosciences like EFT and NLP operate without any care for the standards of for example the APA, but because they are not accredited by the APA, it tells professionals in the scientific community that they do not meet the high standards of the APA and thus cannot be taken seriously. This also provides a motivating force for EFT and NLP etc to improve their standards of practice and ethics to meet membership standards.
In the UK to practice in the professional psychological community one must be accredited by the BPS(British psychologist society) this is a motivating factor in choosing your degree or training program, because if it is not accredited, then one will have to do further training to ensure they meet the standards.
How does this apply to spirituality, I will explore in the next post.
