Neoliberalism and multilevel governance

Abstract

This article examines and theorizes neoliberal ideas related to the scale aspects of multilevel governance. It argues that neoliberalism contains a self-conscious normative project for multilevel governance which is consistent across the federal, regional and global levels. It further argues that the underlying logic of this project can be usefully theorized through various critical understandings of the separation of the economic and the political in neoliberalism and, in particular, through Stephen Gill's concept of new constitutionalism. To demonstrate these points, the article draws on the normative work of neoliberal organic intellectuals—including Hayek, Friedman, Buchanan and various neoliberal think tanks—on 'market-preserving federalism' and the more recent extrapolation of these ideas to the regional and global levels.