Fear of Technological Dominance: A Comparative-Historical Analysis of the European Digital Policy Change

The EU employs the concept of “digital sovereignty” as an instrument to defend and reassert its competitive posture and relevance. This discourse emerges in the context of increased strategic competition in the digital sector between the U.S. and China. Such defensive rhetoric was present in spirit in the policy discourse of the ‘80s against the fear of telecommunications inroads of the U.S. and Japan. The exogenous pressures in terms of dominance and inroads exerted policy change at the level of form through instrument innovation and altering the settings. By comparing the two cases, the article aims to contribute to the literature on the impact of external pressures and the adoption of the “European digital sovereignty” rhetoric on digital policy change. The analysis also sheds light on the relationship between discourse and policy change. I demonstrate that the competition policy in the technological sector is path-dependent, and change only occurs in critical junctures. I draw my analysis on elite interviews (from archives) and policy documents. I argue that the external pressures and the fear of lagging catalyzed Commission’s ambitions to upgrade the competition policy. However, the European policy failed to address the issue of Business competitiveness and the creation of technological champions. While the Commission’s initiatives are examples of policy entrepreneurship, they marginally achieved the goal of European leadership and digital innovation.