Abstract
This article attempts to shed new light on prevailing puzzles of spatial scales in multi-level, participatory governance as regards the democratic legitimacy and environmental effectiveness of governance systems. We focus on the governance re-scaling by the European Water Framework Directive, which introduced new governance scales (mandated river basin management) and demands consultation of citizens and encourages ‘active involvement’ of stakeholders. This allows to examine whether and how re-scaling through deliberate governance interventions impacts on democratic legitimacy and effective environmental policy delivery. To guide the enquiry, this article organizes existing—partly contradictory—claims on the relation of scale, democratic legitimacy, and environmental effectiveness into three clusters of mechanisms, integrating insights from multi-level governance, social-ecological systems, and public participation. We empirically examine Water Framework Directive implementation in a comparative case study of multi-level systems in the light of the suggested mechanisms. We compare two planning areas in Germany: North Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Findings suggest that the Water Framework Directive did have some impact on institutionalizing hydrological scales and participation. Local participation appears generally both more effective and legitimate than on higher levels, pointing to the need for yet more tailored multi-level governance approaches, depending on whether environmental knowledge or advocacy is sought. We find mixed results regarding the potential of participation to bridge spatial ‘misfits’ between ecological and administrative scales of governance, depending on the historical institutionalization of governance on ecological scales. Polycentricity, finally, appeared somewhat favorable in effectiveness terms with some distinct differences regarding polycentricity in planning vs. polycentricity in implementation.
Highlights
Fundamental questions in governance are related to issues of scale, defined here has the spatial configuration of governance systems
Findings suggest that the Water Framework Directive did have some impact on institutionalizing hydrological scales and participation
With regard to the overall governance system put into place for Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation and its polycentricity, we find substantial differences between Lower Saxony (LS) and North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW)
Summary
Fundamental questions in governance are related to issues of scale, defined here has the spatial configuration of (multilevel) governance systems. In order to cope with such problems of spatial ‘misfit’ (Moss 2003; Young 2002), functionally specific governance institutions are increasingly implemented on scales that correspond to the geographic boundaries of environmental problems (Hooghe and Marks 2003) Following this trend, governance in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere is characterized by a multiplicity of vertical, horizontal and functionally specific levels of decision-making. Aiming to balance diverse aspects of legitimacy and effectiveness, such polycentric systems tend to further increase governance complexity, leading to problems of transparency and accountability (Peters and Pierre 2005) To cope with these deficits, the EU has undertaken efforts to decentralize environmental decision-making and policy implementation (Jordan 2002), including the involvement of citizens and local interest groups. These efforts seek to make governance more effective, for example by incorporating local knowledge into decisions and by generating greater acceptance and implementation of decisions (Heinelt et al 2002), and at the same time enhance the legitimacy of decision-making
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