ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that harmonization, far from being simply part of a neo-liberal economic project, is of much more general significance for European political and economic life. It draws on Michel Foucault's analysis of the art of government and Bruno Latour's work in the sociology of science and technology. For the European Commission, the word "harmonization" has two different meanings. On the one hand harmonization is understood as an ambition. The second sense of "harmonization", however, is as an instrument of policy. In terms of the scale and scope of its ambitions, the current project of harmonization is comparable to the drive towards standardization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Harmonization is far from a neutral programme that will somehow impact upon every country, institution and group with equal force. The chapter suggests an essential element in the current art of European government.
