Multi-level Governance Challenges Research Articles

The multilevel governance challenges of NextGenerationEU: the Spanish and Italian decentralised systems viewed through the lens of federalisation

The post-COVID-19 panorama presents serious economic and social challenges, prompting the European Union (EU) to allocate extensive funds to its Member States. The central financing instrument created for this purpose, NextGenerationEU (NGEU), requires the Member States to implement ambitious reforms to bring about green and digital transitions within their National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs). Despite innovative elements in NGEU’s decision-making process, legal basis and fiscal integration policy, the role of sub-state authorities in the context of multilevel governance (MLG) demonstrates a centralised tendency. In order to understand this issue, the management of NRRPs in the Spanish system of autonomous communities and Italian regionalism will be taken as emblematic case studies. Specifically, the constitutional significance of the MLG model in the context of the NGEU recovery package will be evaluated in light of the principles of solidarity, subsidiarity, proportionality and partnership. This paper ultimately aims to offer broader insights into NGEU’s role in the ongoing EU federalisation process and its shortcomings with respect to national decentralised systems.

The role of ecosystem services in the doughnut economy – The example of whale ecosystem services in Disko Bay, Greenland

The doughnut economy framework has been increasingly advocated by academics, governance institutions and policy-makers as a tool for delivering economies that provide a social foundation for all people, are safe and socially just, and respect planetary boundaries. Thus far, the role of ecosystem services (ES) in contributing to the doughnut economy’s ambitions has been underexplored. This is surprising considering the wealth of ES literature addressing the theoretical components of ‘a good life’ and relationships between social-ecological systems (SES), resource use and human well-being. Two contributions to the literature are made by this study: (1) a generalised model is outlined linking natural capital to ES to the ecological ceilings and human needs of the doughnut economy’s framework, and (2) an illustrative case study of whale ES in Disko Bay, Greenland is provided to demonstrate linkages between ES and the doughnut economy’s framework. The findings are based on 19 interviews with representative stakeholders in August 2019 and observational data gathered by the researchers. Although the case study is a simplification of the complexity of SES, it nevertheless reveals several of the key contributions made by whale ES to a mixed economy, especially reduced pressures on the ecological ceilings linked to biodiversity loss and climate change, and a positive contribution to the human needs of food, health, income and work, and social equity. The case study stimulates a discussion that reflects on the limited recognition of the role of cultural ES in the doughnut economy’s conceptualisation, evidence of social-ecological trade-offs and complexities. These include some increased pressures caused by whale ES on ecological ceilings and tensions between the human needs, and multi-level governance challenges in operationalising the doughnut economy.

The geography of environmental innovation: a critical review and agenda for future research

AbstractThis article provides a critical literature review on the regional determinants of environmental innovation. The analysis of the relevant literature on supply-side factors, demand-side factors, and institutional factors reveals the importance of regional determinants in green technology development. Specifically, regional R&D collaborations, university-industry collaborations, and technological relatedness have positive effects on innovation activities in green domains. On the demand side, regional environmental awareness and demonstration effects play a pivotal role in the emergence and diffusion of environmental innovations. Environmental regulations also induce environmental innovation, however, there is only limited evidence at the regional level. Our literature review has informed the development of an agenda for future research, which suggests three avenues for further investigation. Firstly, we recommend abandoning the simple green vs. non-green dichotomy and conducting more technology-sensitive studies on the determinants of environmental innovation. Secondly, we call for a more sophisticated and critical engagement with regional institutions, with a focus on both formal and informal institutions. Lastly, we propose a demand-side turn in research on the regional determinants of environmental innovation in order to better understand their diffusion across space. Overall, our findings suggest that policymakers need to adopt a more nuanced and comprehensive approach to eco-innovation policy, one that considers the spatial and multi-level governance challenges and promotes inclusive regional development.

How does the UNFCCC enable multi-level learning for the governance of adaptation?

Adaptation has become a priority in global climate change governance since the adoption of the Cancun Adaptation Framework and the Paris Agreement. Adaptation to climate change has been increasingly recognized as a multi-level governance challenge in both the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) regime and academic literature. This recognition often includes, explicitly or implicitly, the role that learning can play across governance levels to accelerate and scale up responses to address adaptation challenges. However, there is no comprehensive assessment in academic literature of how multi-level learning has been considered in the UNFCCC regime, what the enabling factors are, and the outcomes of such learning. Drawing on approaches suggested by multi-level governance and learning literature, this paper seeks to fill this knowledge gap by focusing on the ways in which the UNFCCC multilateral process enables multi-level learning for the governance of adaptation and how it could be enhanced. This will be accomplished through a legal–technical analysis of the enabling factors of multi-level learning in the governance of adaptation under the UNFCCC. Qualitative research methods have been applied for the thematic analysis of selected documentation, complemented by interviews and personal observations of adaptation negotiations in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. Results are presented according to three research questions oriented to understand how institutional design of adaptation under the UNFCCC enables multi-level learning; the learning strategies adopted across levels of governance; and the way the UNFCCC regime understands the contribution of multi-level learning for adaptation outcomes.

Multilevel governance and Smart Specialization in EU regions: an evidence-based critical review

This paper critically reviews the literature on multilevel governance issues in support of implementing Smart Specialization policies in EU regions. Using an evidence-based critical review approach, key literature that draws on three critical concepts is explored: multilevel governance, regional innovation policy, and Smart Specialization in various governance conditions and diverse regional resources. The evidence reviewed points to the critical role of multilevel governance in implementing Smart Specialization. Effective coordination mechanisms are essential building blocks to encounter the challenges of multilevel governance for Smart Specialization. More consequential, however, are substantial synergies that are solid, harmonious, and balanced among multi-stakeholders within institutions and across levels of government. This paper contributes to the limited literature on multilevel governance in support of the Smart Specialization policy. Further studies considering different types of regions are recommended to enrich future literature.

New public management reforms and industrial relations in the Italian education system. A cultural political economy approach

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the relation between new public management (NPM) reforms and changing patterns of industrial relations (IRs) and social dialogue in the Italian education system. Drawing on data from the research project ‘Social dialogue and industrial relations in education: The challenges of multi-level governance and privatisation in Europe’ (IR-EDUREFORM), it uses cultural political economy to explore the effects of autonomy, evaluation, and management as policy technologies on teacher unions’ collective bargaining, workplace representation and industrial action. Through the Italian case, the study analyses how NPM reforms operated three distinctive transformations: decentralisation of bargaining to school level, juridification and individualisation of industrial action and a shift from collective to professional unions. Beyond critically exploring the implications of NPM reforms and the processes of decollectivation and individualisation of IRs and social dialogue in education, the study also highlights some potential for the emergence of novel sites for collective representation.

Engaging Communities in Adaptation to Climate Change by Understanding the Dimensions of Social Capital in Atlantic Canada

This paper examines the role of social capital and its influence on the capacity of coastal communities in Atlantic Canada to respond and adapt to climate change, especially when dealing with extreme weather events. Three elements of social capital—social trust, institutional trust, and social networks—were considered. They were analyzed based on four questions targeting social capital during semi-structured interviews on climate change adaptation in 10 rural coastal communities located in three Canadian provinces (Quebec, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island). Results showed that these communities exhibited strong social capital, mainly because of a high level of social trust. People were ambivalent in the way they connected to institutions, especially with governments. They often felt isolated and left to themselves to deal with climate change adaptation decisions. The research conveys the difficulties and challenges of multilevel governance, where coastal communities generally ensure trust within the community first before trusting higher levels of government. Initiatives to improve public engagement and participation in decision making should be supported for further adaptation, although they would require greater accountability and transparency.

An Endless Endeavor: The Evolution and Challenges of Multi-Level Coastal Governance in the Global South

We used Brazil as a Global South case study to analyze the evolution of the coastal governance in a young and still unstable democracy. Based on twenty-five years of documentation related to a federal-level actor interaction hub named Coastal Management Integration Group (GIGERCO) we explored the opportunity context for the transformation of the Brazilian coastal governance system using a Theory of Transformative Agency to identify five periods of evolution. The coastal governance system shifted from an exploitation to a conservation phase (periods 1 to 3), where an increasing number of actors were getting to know the system and each other’s interests turned into a moment of higher stability and resistance to change. The mobilization of social capital and higher heterogeneity of actors allowed novel strategies to emerge, generating opportunities for structural changes from a conservation towards a release phase (period 4). We argue that the recent political changes in Brazil caused a rupture in such a flourishing coastal governance process (period 5), which is now at a critical juncture that may unfold into one of three envisioned alternative scenarios: conservative regime, a new integrated and ecosystem-based regime, or a remanent of past regime properties. Our paper informs coastal governance processes across the world, highlighting the dynamic nature of the interplay between alternative institutional entrepreneurship strategies, opportunity contexts, and innovations in governance systems.

Bringing the Global to the Local: the challenges of multi-level governance for global policy implementation in Africa

ABSTRACT The New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the key role of ‘sub-national entities’, including cities, in achieving sustainable development. However, since these global policy agendas were agreed and signed by national governments, implementing them at the local level requires a process of localisation to fit local realities. This paper analyses the national guidance (or lack of) and the resultant collaborations emerging between various levels of government in the implementation of these agendas in African cities, namely Kisumu, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa. It argues that effective implementation of the SDGs requires a strong framework for multi-stakeholder engagement and coordination at all levels of governance, which is possible if both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used concurrently and harmonised.

Policy Coordination for National Climate Change Adaptation in Europe: All Process, but Little Power

Climate change adaptation (CCA) is argued to require coordinated policy responses because it is a complex, long-term, knowledge intensive, cross-sectoral, and multi-level governance challenge that involves many interdependencies and actors with different perceptions, goals, and approaches. This study, therefore, examines approaches of a set of European Union (EU) member states (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (England)) to pursue a more coordinated approach to CCA policy. It specifically addresses the co-ordination approaches that the selected countries use for the development and implementation of their national CCA policies in the immediate period following the publication of the EU’s 2013 Adaptation Strategy. The analysis demonstrates that while useful coordination processes have been established in the analyzed EU member states, they have difficulty in challenging existing institutional hierarchies and decision rules. Consequently, longer-term opportunities for managing CCA conflicts and synergies among sectoral policies have to date been limited.

Vietnam’s Policies on Climate Change: Practical Implementation and Some Challenges

This study analyzes climate change policies and highlights encouraging practices as well as continuing challenges of effective multilevel climate governance in practice. The research is based on a quantitative analysis method using the outcomes from multi-stakeholders, policy-makers, researchers and representatives from non-governmental organizations. Study results touched on the following areas: (1) Vietnam’s policies on climate change, (2) multilevel activites implemented to copewith climate change, and (3) some barriers impedingthe implementation of climate change policies in practice.The study is written for both policy-makers and development practitioners working in Vietnam to facilitate development of multi-stakeholder, multilevel partnerships that are grounded in community engagement from the outset, with the aim of overcoming barriers to translate policies more effectively into on-the-ground action.

Modern slavery and international business scholarship: the governance nexus

PurposeModern slavery is a problem that international business (IB) research can no longer ignore. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are often contributors to the persistence of modern slavery, by virtue of the regulatory challenge they pose to states and their insufficient oversight of supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to show that governance inadequacies with respect to modern slavery will be lessened if IB scholars give more attention to MNEs’ governing role within and beyond global value chains.Design/methodology/approachA set of arguments is presented in support of intensified effort in IB research with respect to studying the role of MNEs in transnational labour governance. The paper draws inspiration from IB theory and the conceptualisation of the MNE in neighbouring disciplines that regard it as a bearer of duties toward labour, consistent with its role in multilevel governance. Insights from the literature on global and multi-level governance are utilised.FindingsThe paper construes modern slavery as a multi-level governance challenge and argues that MNE capabilities and responsibilities with respect to labour governance and the deterrence of slavery exceed those identified on the margins of IB literature. MNEs are underappreciated as governors within the multilevel transnational labour governance system. The IB discipline is in a strong position to develop our understanding of the MNE’s different roles in governance and thereby contribute to the reduced incidence of modern slavery.Originality/valueThis paper represents an attempt to mobilise the IB academy to help eliminate slavery from workplaces that rely on MNE patronage or where labour rights abuses are made possible by MNE diversion of governance resources. It places particular emphasis on the use and abuse of MNEs’ governance capabilities in the sphere of international relations and calls attention to over-simplification of the MNE, IB’s primary unit of analysis.

Multi-Level Issues in Intersectoral Governance of Public Action: Insights from the Field of Early Childhood in Montreal (Canada)

Putting societal issues on the agenda of public action calls for advanced forms of collaboration between sectors and levels of governance. However, action systems have multiple silos, both horizontal and vertical, that impede collaboration. Therefore, clarifying the challenges of intersectoral and multi-level governance becomes highly relevant. Based on the three-I approach, a study of early childhood programs in Montreal highlights these issues. The study identifies various sectoral mechanisms and rules at the provincial level that hinder innovation in regional and local intersectoral action systems. Compartmentalized accountability by program appears to be the most constraining rule in favour of the status quo. The study illustrates how the local level can be both the place for reproducing sectorization and the ideal place for intersectoral coordination. JEL Codes: I18

Challenges of multi-level water governance at micro-watershed level – A case from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The micro-watershed level can be a promising unit for the integration and coordination of water management functions that affect sustainable water use and livelihoods of local communities such as farmer groups. Recent projects in the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil have advocated interventions at this level. However, micro-watersheds are still not adequately incorporated in the multi-level governance systems of water and related ecosystems in Brazil. Further, a complex landscape of non-local actors and higher-level policies interact and determine resource use patterns at the micro-watershed level. This paper maps stakeholders and shows their influence areas on key water issues using the example of micro-watersheds in Rio de Janeiro. It also highlights the key challenges arising from the governance practice and the institutional framework related to micro-watersheds.

Constitutional economics of Ghana’s decentralization

Abstract This paper concerns the rules that are often chosen to frame decentralization in Ghana. It perceives the challenges of multi-level governance in postcolonial sub-Saharan African countries, such as weak local government capacity for urban planning, as effects of ill-conceived constitutional rules. The paper draws ideas from constitutional political economy (CPE) to problematize the constitutional rules underlying Ghana’s current state of decentralization. I argue that these constitutional rules, embodied in Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and Local Government Act (462), evince both continued dominance of state control over local governance and a systemic transfer of the logics and instruments of the authoritarian Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime to the choice of constitutional rules for Ghana’s decentralization. In other words, Ghana’s decentralization patterns and processes must be examined in the context of the constitutional regime from which they were born. One such pattern is the creation of new local governments (a gerrymandering strategy) by successive governments without commensurate improvement in local democratic and pro-poor developmental outcomes. The paper’s discussions, largely conceptual but interlaced with empirical moments, serve to stimulate debate about the relationships between the constitutional rules for decentralization and their socioeconomic and political effects. I conclude by reflecting on the conceptual and methodological challenges of using CPE to analyze constitutional rules for decentralization and offer ideas to address these challenges in future research.

Utilizing sustainability criteria to evaluate river basin decision-making: the case of the Colorado River Basin

Increasing demands, climate change and variability, and over-allocation pose tremendous challenges for the sustainable management of water resources. Federal river systems such as the Colorado River Basin provide an opportunity to understand multi-level governance challenges to sustainability as well as opportunities to improve decision-making processes. This paper seeks to understand what components of the decision-making process are important for meeting sustainability criteria. This research uses the Colorado River Basin in a multi-method study designed to understand how those specific components not only highlight challenges to sustainability, but also how they may be utilized to further sustainability objectives. Results suggest that process components such as stakeholder participation, decision-making transparency, and fairness are important considerations in the sustainability of a river basin system. Further, a nuanced analysis of the process suggests that these components provide guidance for how decision-making might be improved. This includes emphasizing problematic hydrological or institutional events, reconciling transparency and decision-making efficiency, and acknowledging that all users in the system will need to undertake shortages. Results also suggest how the state and federal governments have specific roles in implementing and facilitating these processes.

Multilevel cross-border governance in the Czech-Saxon borderland: working together or in parallel?

Despite a large amount of literature on multilevel governance, relatively little empirical attention has been paid to decision-making in Central and Eastern Europe. This paper contributes to closing this research gap by focussing on multilevel cross-border decision-making across the Czech-Saxon border region. Specific attention is paid to the involvement of non-state actors and to the main challenges of cross-border multilevel governance in the case study’s region. Although there is a tendency on both sides of the border to invite partners from the private and nonprofit sectors into the decision-making process, the situation in the case-study region is far from the normative conceptualization of EU multilevel governance. For whole region the most important obstacles to balanced regional development were shown to be a multilevel mismatch, different languages, and the lack of a common strategy, while insufficient capacities at the local and regional levels were found on the Czech side.

Managing urban flood resilience as a multilevel governance challenge: an analysis of required multilevel coordination mechanisms

In both academic literature and flood risk management practices, it is argued that governance initiatives are needed to enhance the flood resilience of urban agglomerations. Multiple levels of gove ...

Entangled in scales: multilevel governance challenges for regional planning strategies

The academic discourse considers the regional scale as an important planning level to provide for spatial objectives that transcend the boundaries of local authorities. Nonetheless, the problem-solving capacity of the regional planning level is still questioned by both academics and practitioners. This paper studies the tension between formal and informal regional governance and its practical challenges for two cases of Dutch provinces struggling with their position in regional governance networks. These cases entail pan-European development (Trans-European Transport Networks – TEN-T) and regional land development (Bloemendalerpolder). It was found that at the metropolitan scale, formal regional planning powers tend to overrule socially produced regional governance arrangements. Simultaneously, regional planning powers lack support of these socially produced arrangements for their interventions. At the same time, at the supra-regional scale, provinces are a logical stakeholder to fulfil a prominent role in regional governance, but often lack the institutional capacity to act as such. We therefore argue that regional planning authorities need to be granted the power and capacity to take up a more centripetal, intermediate role in governance arrangements. This would provide them more capacity to act in disentangling the difficult practical challenges of scalar problems that many regional governance arrangements currently face.

What are the challenges of multilevel governance for urban sustainability? Evidence from Ottawa and Canada's national capital region

AbstractUrban sustainability is a priority for cities, challenging public administrators to coordinate action on environmental policy, economic development and social policy. Multilevel governance is now a popular theoretical framework but research must illuminate the constraints on local administrators. This case study reviews efforts of public administrators in the City of Ottawa and Canada's national capital region to implement sustainability policies with collaborative governance, but new governance relationships are constrained by traditional intergovernmental relations. Case study research illuminates the challenges of multilevel governance for local governments and provides insights on the pursuit of sustainability with environmental programs, land use, and urban and development by Crown corporations.