Experimentalism in European Union and global financial governance: interactions, contrasts, and implications

Evidence of substantial experimental governance has been found in a variety of areas of European Union (EU) governance. However the relationship between experimentalism in the EU and global governance remains unclear. Is experimentalist governance an advantage or a disadvantage for the EU in its interactions with global regulatory arrangements? This contribution examines the experimentalist character of EU financial governance and its interactions with the International Monetary Fund, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Financial Reporting Standards governance institutions. Our analysis suggests that experimentalism provides advantages for the EU in areas of global governance that are themselves experimentalist. This argument challenges more conventional approaches that view bureaucratically centralized power as always necessary for the successful promotion of interests and attainment of influence at the global level. Since some governance problems require detailed harmonized rule implementation at single points in time, we also find that experimentalist variation occurs temporally as well as across locations or jurisdictions.