Who Governs Transatlantic Relations

Abstract

In this conclusion to our book Transatlantic Governance in the Global Economy, we address the question “who governs” in transatlantic relations, in both theoretical and empirical terms, on the basis of the evidence presented in the book’s substantive chapters. In Part I, we explain the rise of new forms of transatlantic governance during the 1990s and beyond, addressing three core questions: what’s new about these transatlantic governance mechanisms, why are they developing now, and why have the various actors in the new governance networks chosen to organize at the transatlantic level, rather than in some other international fora? In Part II, we examine the evidence of transatlantic governance across a wide range of issue-areas, ranging from trade and standard-setting to food safety, consumer protection, labor and the environment, and we assess the relative explanatory power of the intergovernmental, transgovernmental, and transnational models of governance laid out in the book’s introduction. In Part III, we conclude that transatlantic governance is increasingly governance by mixed networks of all three types of actors, albeit with a leading intergovernmental role played by the European Commission and U.S. executive. Transgovernmental regulatory networks have proven highly variable in their effectiveness, ranging from the technocratic collaboration of competition policy to the more conflictual efforts to coordinate regulatory actions in areas such as genetically modified foods and the mutual recognition of regulations. Transnational relations through officially sanctioned “civil-society dialogues” have proven to be a disappointment, with most of the dialogues falling into disuse within a decade of their creation.