5 - Global Governance in the Technical Standards Realm

Summary

This chapter discusses the evolution of global governance in the technical standards realm from the mid-nineteenth century to present. Like Chapters 3 and 4, it begins by noting how governments and nongovernmental actors initially became involved in this issue-area at the domestic level. It then follows the processes that led technical standardization to emerge as an issue involving international collaboration. As in the previous two chapters, the narrative follows the ebb and flow of global governance, keeping in mind the five main questions of the study. This allows me to assess in the concluding section of the chapter the changes that the main global governors underwent in terms of their intergovernmental versus nongovernmental nature and the possible explanations for such changes.