Experimentalism in Transnational Governance: Emergent Pathways and Diffusion Mechanisms

This paper explores the emergence and diffusion of experimentalism in transnational governance. We define experimentalism as a governance architecture in which: (1) framework goals and metrics for assessing their achievement are provisionally established by some combination of “central” and “local” units, together with relevant outside stakeholders; (2) local units are given broad discretion to pursue these ends in their own way; (3) but as a condition of this autonomy, these local units must report regularly on their performance and participate in a peer review in which their results are compared with those employing alternative means to the same general ends; and (4) the goals, metrics, and decision-making procedures themselves are periodically revised in response to the results of the review process.