Governing standards: The rise of standardization processes in France and in the EU

Abstract

The rise of standardization processes highlights two different paths toward a regulatory state. Within the EU, the New Approach serves as a model for co-regulation, and European standards have become instruments of supranational governance. In France, standardization is much more part of a renegotiation of the state's role and influence in a changing society. In both cases, standardization was undertaken with other motives; yet it evolved to answer the strains and constraints exerted upon regulatory processes in the two polities. As such, standards are a case for unintentionality in policy instruments. © 2007 Blackwell Publishing.