This is not necessarily the case for construction standards. Similar to 2 above. Phone lines are subject to local congestion depending upon type of user and spatial distribution of users in the local jurisdiction. Hence decentralization of telephones enables those who have mostinformation about local demand and supply to be responsible for its provision.
Majority rule benefits a national coalition that holds a majority.
In this case the minority which has less need for collective action may be Germany, with its advocacy of conservative economic guidelines. But,these are voluntart coordinated arrangements. Such coordination brings about positive internalities and to the extent that positive externalities are created with complementary products may help to increase market share. When social insurance is centralized, each local jurisdiction has the incentive to not internalize costs and favor subsidization by other jurisdictions and hence favor over insurance.