The basic idea of the paper is that the empirical meaning of rules is far from being totally contained in their initial statement. The article concentrates on the economic scope of rules and regulations, and their implementation by players such as the State bureaucracy, regulatory agencies, and courts. The empirical analysis concerns electric utilities and public procurement, with a focus on defense procurement. We begin by examining a key issue: how does the institutional architecture of regulation systems operate? We then address the implementation of rules, which emerges as a more complex process than a mere enforcement of rules prescribing specific types of behavior.