Institutional path-dependencies in Europe’s networked modes of governance

We consider whether transnational networks that softly discipline member states (e.g. the OMC or regulatory networks that oversee national discretion in implementing broad EU frameworks) mark a significant turn in European integration or merely a transitional step towards centralisation (e.g. agencification) and formalisation (subjecting to law). We suggest this requires a closer reading of the institutional changes necessary to bring about centralisation/formalisation, and ask particularly whether change might be partially attributable to the very institutional-agents operating inside Europe’s networked modes of governance. Supplementing functional-political explanations, we propose an endogenous model of institutional change that incorporates the independent role transnational networks play in shaping their own institutionalisation, which may make this mode of governance more resilient and even self-reinforcing. We test the plausibility of this model with a case study detailing the institutional entrepreneurship of transnational networks in the telecoms sector