Experimentalist Governance Research Articles

A European experiment in governing teacher education and training: the case of the Erasmus+ Teacher academies

ABSTRACT This exploratory paper contributes to the literature on European Union (EU) soft governance by discussing the recent EU policy initiative “Erasmus+ Teacher Academies” as a case of experimentalist governance. Asking what makes this initiative a case of experimentalist governance, the paper demonstrates how it constitutes an experiment in terms of governance as well as the development of teaching and learning. In particular, we identify and discuss the properties of the initiative regarding the four key tenets of experimentalist governance: i) setting of common framework goals related to the European Education Area; ii) delegation of responsibility to networks, comprising initial teacher education and professional development providers, schools, government units, and other types of organisations, in finding ways to meet framework goals; iii) regular reporting and peer review, orchestrated by the European Commission; and iv) periodical re-evaluation of framework goals, measures and methods by a widening array of stakeholders. Considering the conditions for governing teacher education and training in the EU context, we discuss the perspectives for policy learning generated by the Academies, the “shadow of hierarchy” potentially giving direction to the initiative, and the ambition to include the teaching profession in EU policy-making.

The challenge of ratcheting up climate ambitions: Implementing the ‘experimentalist‘ EU energy and climate governance regulation

ABSTRACT The 2015 Paris climate Agreement established a ‘bottom-up’, pledge and review process as international climate governance’s central framework. The European Union’s governance framework – the Energy and Climate Governance Regulation (EUGR) – uses a similar architecture. Both require states to regularly create, revise and update national plans while ramping up ambitions towards meeting the collectively agreed commitments and sharing features of Experimentalist Governance. This paper contributes to the debate on experimentalist climate governance’s effectiveness. It assesses systematically the implementation of EUGR based on documentary analysis and expert interviews. We find that the process has been partially effective in raising ambitions but has remained incremental, technocratic and depoliticised. Experimentalist processes such as the EUGR and Paris Agreement require a high level of public and stakeholder engagement to operate but politicisation can have, in turn, adverse effects. This raises questions regarding the ability of experimentalist climate governance to deliver, alone, rapid emission reductions.

Governing Complexity in Complex Times: The HDP Nexus and the Role of the UN, the EU and the World Bank

ABSTRACT Based on the work conducted with a Nexus-centred network of scholars and practitioners (HDP LAB SYNEX4 Future), an overview is offered of the literature on regime complexity to analyse origins and evolution of the Triple Nexus multilateral approach to the governance of compound humanitarian-development-security crises. The identification of the main institutional features of the UN-orchestrated Nexus policy concept highlights its potential as an innovative attempt at global experimentalist governance. This analysis of the nexus-based approach of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the World Bank Group (WBG) in three pilot countries – Cameroon, Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – demonstrates that, while coordination has increased, the agency of local communities remains limited and major impediments hinder the inclusion of the peace dimension, an area where separate initiatives by non-Western regional organisations have also stalled. Progress will necessarily depend on the ability of Nexus actors to develop its bottom-up and participatory components, and to improve coordination within the group of like-minded donors who share a clear commitment to a human rights-based, inclusive and prosperous future.

EU smart specialization policy between experimentation and accountability: dynamic policy cycle perspective

ABSTRACT The key feature of EU Smart Specialization is experimentalist governance, or the idea that policy principals only partially possess the necessary knowledge for policy design and implementation. Instead, discovering policy priorities, designing instruments, and detecting and correcting errors are the responsibilities of a wide range of innovation stakeholders. However, particularly in institutionally less developed countries and regions, there is often a clash between the requirements for experimental governance and the public policy demand for predominantly procedural accountability. Our central argument is that the experimentation dimension cannot be added to the conventional policy cycle without altering it. This results in a trade-off between experimentation and accountability, leading to four disconnected governance regimes: EDP, design, implementation, and M&E. This paper demonstrates this issue in the case of Croatia’s S3. Using the concept of a dynamic policy cycle, we critically examine different solutions to experimentation and highlight their deficiencies. Our analysis and conclusions are highly relevant for countries and regions adopting experimental policy approaches.

Experimentalist governance under hierarchy through leading small groups: a solution to power fragmentation?

ABSTRACT Taking policy experimentation in several selected pilot sites as test beds prior to the implementation nationwide has emerged as a notable phenomenon amidst China’s reform trajectories. However, the country’s combined party-state authoritarian governance structure and relatively fragmented bureaucratic system have presented challenges to this experimentation process. This paper investigates the dynamic interplay between experimentalist governance and hierarchy in China by examining how hierarchical controls facilitate the implementation of experimentalist practice in the case of Wujin rural land reform. It reveals that the establishment of leading small groups (LSGs) at each administrative layer has aided in the materialization of local experimentation by enhancing the bargaining power of lower-level governmental entities and streamlining the vertical communication process across the lengthy administrative hierarchies. This mechanism also mitigates regulatory gaps among different branches of governmental departments responsible for land resources management. The political design of LSGs manifests the Chinese central government’s strategic commitment to promoting experimentalist governance while exerting careful control over the varied sub-national implementation practices, exemplifying the increasing feature of top-level design in China’s current policy experimentation and governance efforts.

Frontex goes global: A two‐level experimentalist governance analysis of Frontex's international action and its role within the externalisation of EU borders

AbstractThe European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) has progressively expanded its international footprint by collaborating with non‐European Union (EU) partners to enhance the management and security of the EU's external borders. This article examines the development of Frontex's external relations through a two‐level experimentalist governance lens and considers its impact on the EU's externalisation policy. The article contends that Frontex has enhanced its international profile in a context where EU policy actors' allocated goals have remained vague. The agency has had considerable autonomy in implementing these goals and has actively broadened its operational scope. The accountability dimension of Frontex's external relations, however, remains an important concern. To address this challenge, the article advocates greater transparency and disclosure, along with increased parliamentary and public oversight of Frontex.

Truijens (Douwe) – Interest Groups and Experimentalist Governance in the EU. New Modes of Lobbying. – Cham, Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology), 2021. XVII + 238 p. Annexes. Bibliogr. Index.

Truijens (Douwe) – Interest Groups and Experimentalist Governance in the EU. New Modes of Lobbying. – Cham, Palgrave Macmillan (Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology), 2021. XVII + 238 p. Annexes. Bibliogr. Index.

Money Makes the World Go Round: How Much Difference Do Recovery and Resilience Plans Make to EU Reform Governance?

AbstractThe Next Generation EU (NGEU) package transformed European economic governance. This article examines the implications of this change in terms of EU polity formation and in terms of social policy content. It asks whether the temporary availability of large funds increases the leverage of the Commission in the European Semester and how this innovation affects sensitive policies. In the tradition of Stein Rokkan, the article advances a conception of the EU as a compound polity that needs to reconcile dispersed authority with second‐order loyalty. We then contrast our theoretical expectations with traditional reform surveillance and experimentalist governance theories. The drafting of Recovery and Resilience Plans for Italy and Spain provides the empirical basis for assessing these expectations. The analysis shows a dual effect: adding fiscal capacity to the European Semester enhances the Commission's hierarchical power whilst the need to ensure member states' loyalty leaves room for national executives to insist on their priorities.

Do Montreal! A Review Article

Abstract International climate change diplomacy has tried a rigid top-down approach (the Kyoto Agreement) and a more flexible bottom-up approach (the Paris Agreement). Neither approach has gained sufficient traction on the climate change problem. The authors of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World propose a new direction. Borrowing from the framework of the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which made great strides in eliminating use of ozone-depleting chemicals, they outline a framework for “experimentalist governance” that relies on public and private organizations to promote a problem-solving approach that is, at the same time, both bottom-up and top-down, market based and institution based, technocratic and democratic. Using case studies and examples across a wide array of contexts—from U.S. coal-fired power-plant sulfur dioxide emissions to dairy farm pollution in Ireland—they build the case for infusing climate change governance with innovation-driven institutions, processes, and instruments. The case studies and examples, however, share several common features that suggest experimentalist governance thrives under ideal conditions, including clearly defined technology challenges and ability to contain the impacts of innovation largely to the incumbent industry. Under the Montreal Protocol, for example, switching chemicals in products did not require consumers to change behavior or make substantial sacrifices. Many of the challenges of climate change policy fit these and the other ideal conditions, but many do not. The full extent of the necessary energy transition, as well as the demands of climate change adaptation, present complex socioeconomic policy issues fraught with political division. Experimentalist governance can go a long way toward fixing the climate, but ultimately, fixing the climate also will require fixing the climate politics.

Intellectual property system and urban green innovation: Evidence from China

AbstractGreen innovation (GI) can enable win‒win style economic and ecological benefits. Using China's pilot scheme for the construction of the intellectual property protection (IPP) system as an example, this paper empirically tests the impact of IPP system reform on the GI level and its spatial spillover effect. The results show that IPP system reform has significantly promoted urban GI, indicating that a progressive reform model characterized by experimentalist governance is applicable to innovation policy practices in developing countries. The dynamic effect analysis shows that IPP system reform can be applied to continuously promote urban GI. The mechanism analysis shows that such use of IPP system reform can improve the level of urban GI by promoting investment and talent agglomeration, confirming the viewpoint of the institutionalist school. The heterogeneity analysis shows that IPP system reform plays a stronger role in promoting GI in peripheral cities than in central cities, in cities with lower rather than higher scientific and educational levels and in cities with weaker rather than stronger GI capacity. Consistent with the theory of institutional diffusion, IPP system reform has a significant spatial spillover effect, promoting GI activities in surrounding cities while working to improve the local GI level. This paper affirms the effectiveness of the pilot regional innovation policy with Chinese characteristics, with important theoretical significance.

Implementing the Humanitarian‐development‐peace nexus in a post‐pandemic world: Multilateral cooperation and the challenge of inter‐organisational dialogue

AbstractEngaging with the UN Secretary General's call for a more effective, networked and inclusive approach to multilateralism (Our Common Agenda, 2021), this paper discusses the main challenges to the implementation of the Humanitarian‐Development‐Peace Nexus concept. Institutionalised by the UN in 2016, such cross‐policy effort at global governance has been neglected by the IR and IPE literatures. To start filling this gap, the paper identifies strengths and weaknesses of multilateral inter‐agency cooperation on the Nexus approach. Based on previous research on inter‐organisational performance and regime complexity, it investigates select evidence from three organisations (UN, EU, World Bank), in pre‐ and post‐COVID‐19 contexts. Identifying tangible elements of experimentalist governance in the HDP global endeavour, the paper concludes with a synthetic overview of the comparative advantages that each organisation offers to implement the Nexus.

Two instruments, one melody: The parallel evolvement of European and German alliances for apprenticeships

European education and training policies have gained momentum with the debt crisis and soaring youth unemployment. In 2013, the ‘European Alliance for Apprenticeships’ was launched. In Germany, a role model for apprenticeship training in Europe, a national ‘Alliance for Initial and Further Training’ was signed just one year later. Both Alliances represent a new, experimentalist governance mode, in which a novel steering entity orchestrates stakeholder cooperation. What explains the parallel evolvement of alliances for apprenticeships in Germany and at the EU level? Studying developments around the Alliances in the last two decades, we trace and critically discuss four theorised drivers: (1) German-driven VET governance reforms with a strong influence of German best practices, (2) EU-driven cooperation that influences German VET policies, (3) cross-fertilising reforms and (4) externally driven, parallel reforms in response to governance mega-challenges. Our analysis supports a prevalence of the fourth driver: increasingly complex policy problems push both the EU and Germany to implement policy innovations such as the Alliances for apprenticeship training. In an experimentalist setting that often entails a governance by (seemingly neutral) numbers, benchmarking and learning, this also gives leeway to Germany to present itself as a pioneer of the EU’s focus on dual training.

Rescuing the Paris Agreement: Improving the Global Experimentalist Governance by Reclassifying Countries

The Paris Agreement design follows the Global Experimental Governance mode, which once achieved success in ozone protection. However, the implementation of the Paris Agreement encountered difficulties, as it inherited the traditional dichotomy country classification established at the 1992 Rio Summit. Still, over time, the capability and motivation in Annex I and non-Annex I countries developed so differently that incentive and constraint policies do not encourage more ambitious mitigation commitments using the previous classification. For this reason, according to a country’s capability and motivation, this research divided these countries into four categories: Leader, Reserve Force, Waverer, and Obscurity, and proposed a potential climate action roadmap for different types of countries to mobilize their internal forces by dynamically classifying a country’s character and to improve overall global climate governance.

Does the pilot construction of new-energy cities promote particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) reduction? Evidence from China

Introduction: In recent years, China has paid high attention on urban energy innovation, trying to achieve a win–win situation between environmental protection and urban development, and it has formulated a series of policies to promote urban energy innovation.Methods: Taking China’s new energy demonstration city (NEDC) policy as an example, this paper empirically investigates the impact of China’s urban energy policy on PM2.5 by using a difference-in-differences (DID) model.Results/Discussion: (1) NEDC policy has reduced PM2.5 concentrations by 4.84% in pilot cities. Moreover, this policy can continue to reduce PM2.5 concentrations for at least 5 years, and the policy effect increases year by year. (2) NEDC policy has spatial spillover effect, which significantly reduces PM2.5 of surrounding cities within 150 km. (3) The PM2.5 reducing effect of NEDC policy is primarily the result of technological effect and allocation effect generated by promoting innovation and industrial upgrading. (4) The PM2.5 control effect of NEDC policy presents an inverted U-shape with the expansion of city size, and is better in cities with low levels of financial support, high levels of human capital and information infrastructure. The conclusions of this paper have important theoretical value for understanding the ecological effect of innovation policy and provide experience for developing countries to implement an experimentalist governance model.

Developing banking union’s common supervisory culture: a look into the ‘black box’ of joint supervisory teams

ABSTRACT The accomplishment of the Banking Union’s common supervisory culture or the implementation of consistent supervisory practices and standards across participating Member States, critically depends on the cooperation of national competent authorities throughout the supervisory process, which takes place primarily in Joint Supervisory Teams (JSTs). Because of their mixed, multilevel composition, JSTs allow the cross-comparison of varying national supervisory approaches and facilitate the identification of best practices as building blocks of a shared supervisory outlook on prudential concerns. This paper unpacks the ‘black box’ of JSTs through the lens of experimentalist governance and with a qualitative examination of data from various sources, including semi-structured interviews with JST-participants. It reveals the importance of NCAs in JSTs experimentalist practice as well as of soft governance tools in fostering a sense of community and highlights specific operational challenges in close cooperation that limit the reach of the common supervisory culture beyond the euro area.

Seeking policy solutions in a complex system: experimentalist governance in China's healthcare reform.

The proliferation of "wicked" policy problems in complex systems requires an experimental approach of problem-solving. Experimentalist governance offers a conducive framework through which to seek policy solutions amidst high levels of complexity in a multilevel governance structure. This study conceptualizes four distinctive experimental modalities based on varying levels of technical complexity and interest complexity, both of which represent salient constraints for policy reforms in a complex system, the health sector in particular. Trail-blazing pilots, crowdsourcing pilots, managed pilots, and road-testing pilots are all associated with distinct mechanisms of experimentation in a multilevel governance structure. Through four illustrative cases from China's massive experimental program of public hospital reform, this study demonstrates how experimentalist governance seeks policy solutions in the health sector. Should governance arrangements, policy capacity, pragmatism, and informational devices become aligned in a conducive way, experimentalist governance can play an instrumental role in seeking solutions for difficult problems in a complex policy system. A governance structure capable of policy learning and adaptive management is the key.

EU regulation between uniformity, differentiation, and experimentalism: Electricity and banking compared

How far and under what conditions may experimentalist governance be an efficient and legitimate means of responding to diversity among EU member states, in comparison to both conventional uniform regulation and differentiated integration? By comparing two major domains where the challenge of integrating national diversity has arisen prominently, electricity and banking, we find that under conditions of high interdependence and high uncertainty, diachronic experimentalism may be a necessary condition for synchronic uniformity. Uniform rules can be accepted as efficient and legitimate by member states, provided that they are regularly revised based on implementation experience through deliberative review processes in which national officials themselves participate. Our findings on EU banking regulation further suggest that experimentalist governance and differentiated integration may also be complementary, but asymmetrically so, in that the latter depends on the former to accommodate diversity within and across member states, but not vice versa.

Human Rights Experimentalism in Action: The Potential of National Human Rights Institutions in Enhancing the Implementation and Monitoring of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

AbstractArticle 33(2) of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities provides for the establishment and designation of independent monitoring mechanisms charged with the promotion, protection and monitoring of its implementation. In numerous States parties, National Human Rights Institutions have been designated as Article 33(2) institutions, either individually or in co-ordination with other bodies, and have consequently made effective contributions to the reporting and inquiry procedures of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Drawing from experimentalist governance theory, this contribution interrogates whether, and to what extent, this dialogue between locally placed actors and institutions (such as National Human Rights Institutions) on the one hand, and internationally situated actors and institutions (such as the Committee) on the other, has the potential to bolster the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. At its core, experimentalism proffers a normatively attractive vision of how broadly agreed upon goals can be brought to life in a multi-level setting, such as the monitoring mechanism contemplated by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities with its unique role and definition for both international and national actors. By analysing Article 33 through an experimentalist governance lens, the contribution thus hopes to highlight a routinely neglected or underestimated aspect of the human rights treaty system, that is, the iterative and dynamic interaction between locally situated actors and institutions and internationally situated actors and institutions, and bring to light what this portends for the Convention’s implementation in reality.

Environmental benefits of innovation policy: China's national independent innovation demonstration zone policy and haze control.

In recent years, China has focused its development on technological innovation, trying to achieve a win-win situation between environmental protection and economic growth, and it has formulated a series of policies to promote technological innovation. Taking China's national independent innovation demonstration zone (NIIDZ) policy as an example, this paper empirically investigates the impact of China's innovation policy on haze pollution by using a difference-in-differences (DID) model. The results show that the NIIDZ policy promotes the governance of urban haze pollution and confirms the applicability of the experimentalist governance model in the practice of innovation policy in developing countries. Dynamic analysis shows that the NIIDZ policy has an experience accumulation effect. This policy can continue to promote haze control for at least 6 years, and the policy effect increases year by year. Action mechanism analysis shows that the NIIDZ policy can inhibit urban haze pollution by promoting urban technological innovation and high-tech industrial agglomeration. The estimation results of the spatial DID model show that the NIIDZ policy not only inhibits haze pollution in NIIDZ cities but also has an inhibitory effect on haze pollution in the surrounding non-NIIDZ cities and the NIIDZ cities, which confirms the positive externality characteristics of policy diffusion theory and environmental governance. The conclusions of this paper have important theoretical value for understanding the ecological effect of innovation policy and provide experience for developing countries to implement an experimentalist governance model.

South–South Cooperation and the Promise of Experimentalist Governance: The ASEAN Smart Cities Network

This article considers the impact that increasing pragmatism and pluralism are having on South–South cooperation (SSC). Focusing on the growing sway of multilateral platforms for cooperation between cities and the reinvigoration of regionalism, it identifies experimentalist design principles for fostering autonomy-enhancing initiatives between developing countries that have the capacity to learn from and scale up locally-informed, adaptive problem solving. The first part of the article frames SSC in light of experimentalist governance theory. The second part provides a case study of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Smart Cities Network, an initiative that captures the promise and challenges of enhancing SSC through regional experimentalist governance of city-to-city partnerships.