New Institutionalism and the Governance of the European Digital Single Market: Effective and Democratic?

European market integration has long been a key component of the European integration process. Against this backdrop, the European Union (EU) has to address the global significance of Information and Communication Technologies for the future development of economies and societies. Therefore, European Commission’s (EC) policies aim at shaping a digital single market (DSM) as a core pillar to make Europe fit for the digital age. Policies in its context aim to address the specific characteristics of the digital economy, notably the significant role of data and a platform-dominated e-commerce sector. These new economic features challenge path-dependencies of public governance structures, reflected by the EC’s new governance approaches for the DSM. This paper explores the case of the DSM and questions, does the digital economy cause institutional disruption? Based on an analysis of primary documents, secondary materials, and personal interviews, it studies the special features of important DSM policies in the areas of data governance and e-commerce. This allows identifying the digital economy’s institutional challenges and their consequences for market governance in the EU. The paper applies a historical institutionalist framework mapping the continuities and change of governance mechanisms, of policy instruments and of the underlying assumptions informing policy decisions.