ABSTRACT
At first glance, a map of the world’s central banks reveals a considerable amount of isomorphism. During the last three decades, the ‘art of central banking’ (Hawtrey 1932) has been fundamentally transformed. First of all, central banking has ‘moved upwards’, in the sense that it has increasingly been lifted out of its national context, and international co-operation between central bankers has taken on a life of its own. As a result, problem formulation, policy analysis, decision-making and monitoring now take place in distinct transnational forums. Not only has the number of international forums for central banking co-operation increased and their activity intensified; today the purpose, functioning and effects of international cooperation between central banks increasingly involve authoritative soft governance (Marcussen, 2006a, 2007).
