Multi-level Governance Regime Research Articles

Governance capture and socio-environmental conflict: a critical political economy of the global mining industry’s prior consultation regime

Prior consultation purports to mitigate socio-environmental conflict risks by creating deliberative and democratic spaces for local communities to influence decisions over newly proposed mining projects. Yet, many contest state and corporate claims to fair and inclusive decision-making, insisting that mines are often approved in violation of their human rights. Using a critical political economy of environmental governance approach, we analyze the multilevel governance regime which informs the practice of prior consultation within the global mining industry. We argue that this regime has become ‘captured’ by mining interests, as evidenced by the ‘market-enabling’ procedures which restrict communities’ capacity to exercise self-determination. Furthermore, we suggest that this leaves some local groups with little choice but to engage in risky protest action to express opposition. We utilize the Brazilian and Peruvian mining sectors as illustrative vignettes, for which data were collected from extensive fieldwork in both countries.

The patchwork governance of ecologically available water: A case study in the Upper Missouri Headwaters, Montana, United States

AbstractInstitutional authority and responsibility for allocating water to ecosystems (“ecologically available water” [EAW]) is spread across local, state, and federal agencies, which operate under a range of statutes, mandates, and planning processes. We use a case study of the Upper Missouri Headwaters Basin in southwestern Montana, United States, to illustrate this fragmented institutional landscape. Our goals are to (a) describe the patchwork of agencies and institutional actors whose intersecting authorities and actions influence the EAW in the study basin; (b) describe the range of governance mechanisms these agencies use, including laws, policies, administrative programs, and planning processes; and (c) assess the extent to which the collective governance regime creates gaps in responsibility. We find the water governance regime includes a range of nested mechanisms that in various ways facilitate or hinder the governance of EAW. We conclude the current multilevel governance regime leaves certain aspects of EAW unaddressed and does not adequately account for the interconnections between water in different parts of the ecosystem, creating integrative gaps. We suggest that more intentional and robust coordination could provide a means to address these gaps.

Refugee Protection in Multi-level Governance Regimes: A Case for Kenya and Indonesia

In Indonesia, The Presidential Regulation No. 125 of 2016 concerning the management of asylum seekers, signed by President Joko Widodo on the last day of 2016, formalizes the role of sub-national units in refugee management, including the provision of appropriate, non-custodial accommodation. While in Kenya, the recently enacted Refugee Act of 2021 alludes to the engagement of the County Governments in Refugee protection. Within the context of the legal framework of these two countries, this article analyses the place of refugees in a multi-layered governance system through a comparative appraisal of local government structures in the selected States. The Article compares forms of decentralization adopted in these two refugee-hosting countries with the primary aim of establishing local government formation responsive to asylum seekers' plight. The research finds a novelty that involving local governments in refugee protection is a crucial step toward the effective and sustainable management of displaced populations. However, for it to be effective, it must be supported by adequate resources, clear guidelines, and a strong institutional capacity.

Citizens' expectations about social protection in multilevel governance: The interplay between national and supranational institutions

AbstractTwo contrasting perspectives can be identified in the current literature on the relationship between European integration and the welfare state. On the one hand, the race to the bottom thesis presumes that welfare spending will be reduced to the lowest common denominator. On the other hand, the upward convergence thesis suggests that European integration supports and strengthens the capacities of national welfare states. This suggests that the consequences of European integration for national social protection systems are ambiguous. The current study contributes to this debate, by investigating the relationship between European integration and the welfare state from the perspective of public opinion. Do European citizens envision a race to the bottom or an upward convergence in social protection, and why so? Analysing data from the European Social Survey in 18 EU countries, the article reveals that the material benefits brought by national and supranational institutions, jointly shape citizens' expectations about the EU–welfare nexus, although in opposite directions. Generous national welfare provision fuels expectations that European integration fosters a race to the bottom for social protection levels, while higher receipts from EU Structural Fund programs and individual trust in EU institutions raise expectations of the EU as a catalyst of upward convergence in social standards. The implications of these findings for social policymaking in multilevel governance regimes are discussed.

The Water Management Regime in Western Iran: A Retrospective Analysis through a Hybrid Transitions Framework

Continuously changing conditions of sociotechnical systems are the basis of structural changes in communities. Relationships between transition contexts and regime transformation processes and their driving factors in sociotechnical regimes are poorly understood. Moreover, not all changes in multilevel governance regimes are geared towards sustainability, as demonstrated by the case of the water management regime in Sanandaj county in the west of Iran between 1962 and 2018. The current study shows how the management regime of water resources in the case study has changed over time and identifies the institutional arrangements through a retrospective analysis. The analysis is based on three stages of data collection which included a discussion group, a Delphi survey, and a focus group survey among various types of stakeholders. The “Hybrid Transitions” framework is introduced in order to denote processes of regime change that take place in a range of different transition contexts. The findings do not identify a single transition pathway but show that a number of parallel transition pathways have occurred in the context of groundwater and surface water management and their respective institutional arrangements. The study provides a better understanding of the complexity of transition pathways that were devised at the management regime level.

Stakeholder participation and engagement in the governance of waste in Wolkite, Ethiopia

Using exploratory case-study, this study sought to explore the institutional and structural components of stakeholders’ participation in the governance of waste in Wolkite Town. It helps to understand the potential and power of stakeholders through establishing autonomous multi-level governance regimes. The study revealed that the top-down and provincial nature of waste governance in Wolkite town is fragile and collapses with limited outcomes, for stakeholders do not take responsibility and accountability that governs and encourages their engagement. Rather, their engagement is limited to working based on government initiatives that do not encourage multi-scale governance programs which could make waste governance broad in content by combining the commercial, health, social, and environmental stakes of stakeholders. The stakeholders are not aware of the impact of their power and how waste cold be governed according to the distinct institutional structures instead of following uniform approaches.Hence, it is imperative to institute different governance centers that have the power and responsibility to organize and transform waste governance practices.

Organizing forestry governance: Cadre training in China's multi-level governance regime

Extant literature has examined cadre training within the context of the Chinese party-state's adaptive capacities, focusing on training delivered through party schools and administration academies. This article offers a different perspective, analyzing professional training as a steering mechanism in China's multi-level governance regime. Using China's State Forestry Administration (SFA) as a case study, the article explores the structure of training programs within the administration, the types of training offered to forestry cadres, and the role of training in the implementation of policies to promote sustainable forest management. It shows that training pursues different objectives, one of which is to facilitate and contribute to policy implementation. The SFA categorizes trainees into a number of centrally-defined, standardized groups and determines what kind of knowledge and skills each group of trainees are expected to acquire via training. Finally, it shows that training is used as a means to organize governance in China.

Enhancing Climate Finance Readiness: A Review of Selected Investment Frameworks as Tools of Multilevel Governance

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated that to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit global mean temperature rise to well below 2° Celsius, new forms of low-carbon investment must be unlocked and cost-effectively doubled by 2030. This level of deployment of low-carbon solutions require doubling current investment in renewable energy to US$500 billion per year up to 2020 and tripling in the 2020s to reach US$900 billion each year up to 2030. However, the mechanisms for scaling up such investments remain constrained by high transaction costs, insufficient investment size, and limited market liquidity. We explore recent development of climate investment readiness frameworks (CIRFs) and their application in support of low-carbon development strategies. The paper focuses on two objectives driving the creation and use of such frameworks: (a) barriers to attracting large-scale private investment in climate-sensitive technologies, and (b) how these barriers can be reduced through effective capacity building mechanisms. We consider the utility of the main investment readiness (IR) frameworks with a particular focus on their contributions to developing a climate investment-friendly policy regime through appropriate governance reforms and technical capacity building measures. Important connections between the performance of climate investment readiness frameworks and broader governance issues are highlighted. Conclusions for strengthening such frameworks as tools of multilevel governance regimes are offered.

Governance and implementation challenges for mangrove forest Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES): Empirical evidence from the Philippines

Mangrove forests have been considered as potentially suitable for PES, though few mangrove PES schemes exist worldwide, suggesting they - and the broader social-ecological and governance systems in which they sit - may not be as conducive to PES as first thought. This study assesses economic, social, and governance challenges to implementing PES in mangroves. It draws on empirical evidence from two prospective community-level mangrove carbon PES schemes in the Philippines, where fishing and aquaculture are major livelihoods. We conducted (1) policy reviews and interviews with local communities, government, and NGOs to investigate governability; (2) village income accounting to determine the extra income that participants could receive through PES; and (3) a choice ranking exercise to elicit preferences on how payments could best be spent to enhance participant wellbeing. The latter approach identifies key gender differences, and enables potential PES-induced social-ecological trade-offs to be pre-empted. Blue carbon PES can contribute an additional 2.3–5.8% of current village incomes, while villagers would prefer to spend the monies on more effective fishing equipment, which could perversely jeopardize fishery sustainability. To be most successful, coastal PES schemes in the Philippines need to be managed through a multi-level governance regime involving co-management and local participation.

Multilevel (mis)governance of palm oil production

The palm oil industry exemplifies the ‘regionalisation without regionalism’ pattern seen in other industries in Asia: extensive, regionally concentrated transnational economic integration accompanied by a low level of formal regional institution-building. Production is concentrated in Malaysia and Indonesia, and Asian countries account for a major share of the market for intermediate products. The ownership structure of palm oil production reflects the dominance of transnational Malaysian and Singaporean firms. There is no authoritative regional institution governing production, investment standards or labour in the industry. A patchwork of both enabling and regulatory governance institutions supports the industry. These are formal and informal, public and private, and are situated at multiple levels: within, below and across the nation state. Although the governance structure surrounding the palm oil industry has supported it well in terms of production volumes and profits, large externalities—environmental and social costs—persist. This article argues that the governance failures associated with the industry stem from different stakeholders' competing interests in contexts of highly unequal wealth and power distribution. Misgovernance is not an unintended consequence of institutions failing to keep up with markets in scale and scope, but is embedded in the multilevel governance regime that supports, and partially regulates, the industry.

Scale Misfit in Ecosystem Service Governance as a Source of Environmental Conflict

We examine transformations in institutional regimes defining access to ecosystem services in Doñana, a rural region in southwestern Spain that is internationally recognized for its outstanding biocultural values. First, we review historical changes in rules, norms, and conventions defining access to ecosystem services. Second, we conduct a survey among local informants to assess the scales at which ecosystem services are supplied, demanded, and governed and discuss scale misfits in relation to historical conflicts over access to ecosystem services. We identify (1) two major periods of institutional change, characterized by conflicts between the central state and local users from enclosures of communal lands and associated restrictions in access to ecosystem services, and (2) a clash between customary governance institutions and new ones emerging with growing central state intervention and market integration. Our results suggest that multilevel governance regimes that promote coordination and institutional diversity across scales while respecting local sovereignty over ecosystem management are more likely to prevent environmental conflicts and to produce better outcomes regarding the long-term sustainable use of ecosystem services.

Political Tensions in the Eurozone Labour Market and Macroeconomic Imbalances in the Core and Periphery

The European sovereign debt crisis is leading to a transformation of both the democratic state and the political governance of the Eurozone. This dilemma has become particularly acute for countries in receipt of non-market financial funding in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); a technocratic experiment in multilevel governance that is now in crisis. In the absence of currency devaluation and exchange rate adjustments, national governments have little option but to pursue an internal devaluation, putting increased pressure on wage, welfare and labour market institutions. This paper assesses these constraints by examining the politics of reform in the core (Germany) and peripheral (Spain and Ireland) regions of the Eurozone. National reforms in these regions, it is argued, are based on member-states defending their national models of capitalism but increasingly conditioned by the political and macroeconomic constraints of the EMU. The paper concludes that this horizontal and vertical tension facing national governments in a multi-level governance regime is leading to a democratic crisis of the state in debtor countries – and a direct consequence of EMU membership.

Decentralisation and devolution in Nicaragua’s North Atlantic autonomous region: Natural resources and indigenous peoples’ rights

<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;" lang="EN-GB">A number of governments, particularly in Latin America, have begun to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities to the lands on which they live. Recognition has often taken the form of constitutional provisions or laws that grant use rights in perpetuity or provide land titles. These provisions usually establish rights for multiple communities over a large territory, at a scale that may be ideal for promoting broader, ecosystem management approaches. At the same time, however, indigenous communities often do not have existing territorial governance structures at these scales. Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region provides a rich setting in which to study issues of multilevel natural resource governance. In addition to the devolution policies that have created official indigenous territories, the central government has decentralised important powers over natural resources to the regional autonomous authority, while municipal authorities still exist but have been marginalised. At the same time, however, the community scale is the one at which local people have traditionally managed resources. This paper examines these issues in light of efforts to establish democratic governance institutions at the territory level and argues that communities continue to lose out under multilevel governance regimes without concerted efforts to level the playing field. The findings are based on several years of research in the region, emerging research on newly titled territories and a six month training and dialogue with territory leaders, organised by a consortium of international and local NGOs.</span>

Decentralisation and devolution in Nicaragua’s North Atlantic autonomous region: Natural resources and indigenous peoples’ rights

<span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;;" lang="EN-GB">A number of governments, particularly in Latin America, have begun to recognise the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities to the lands on which they live. Recognition has often taken the form of constitutional provisions or laws that grant use rights in perpetuity or provide land titles. These provisions usually establish rights for multiple communities over a large territory, at a scale that may be ideal for promoting broader, ecosystem management approaches. At the same time, however, indigenous communities often do not have existing territorial governance structures at these scales. Nicaragua’s North Atlantic Autonomous Region provides a rich setting in which to study issues of multilevel natural resource governance. In addition to the devolution policies that have created official indigenous territories, the central government has decentralised important powers over natural resources to the regional autonomous authority, while municipal authorities still exist but have been marginalised. At the same time, however, the community scale is the one at which local people have traditionally managed resources. This paper examines these issues in light of efforts to establish democratic governance institutions at the territory level and argues that communities continue to lose out under multilevel governance regimes without concerted efforts to level the playing field. The findings are based on several years of research in the region, emerging research on newly titled territories and a six month training and dialogue with territory leaders, organised by a consortium of international and local NGOs.</span>

Adapting Federalism: Indigenous Multilevel Governance in Canada and the United States

Given its change-resistant nature, how does federalism evolve to reflect the changing social and political context? This article compares the trajectories of Canadian and American federalism in response to the self-determination claims of indigenous peoples. Building on the literature on institutional change, I first suggest that both federations have followed similar patterns of institutional adaptation to indigenous claims through the development of multilevel governance (MLG) regimes that are layered over the existing federal structure without altering its foundations. I then underline the variations in the two MLG regimes and suggest these differences are the product of specific policy legacies as well as strategic choices made by the indigenous leadership, notably around venue selection.

Multilevel water, biodiversity and climate adaptation governance: evaluating adaptive management in Lesotho

In many cases in which climate change affects natural resources, impacts are uncertain and adaptation to climate change often involves collective action problems at the local level, which are embedded in multilevel governance regimes. Adaptive management (AM) is an emerging approach to deal with such uncertainty and complexity by promoting multilevel institutions that are robust to change and able to learn. Much of the literature evaluating AM in multilevel governance regimes, however, focuses only on the adherence to certain structural features said to make AM successful, leaving aside the question whether AM actually produces desired outcomes. This paper evaluates AM in multilevel regimes also in terms of the outcomes they produce. To this end, we first apply the Management and Transition Framework (MTF) in order to describe three multilevel regimes in Lesotho. For each regime we then observe whether it adheres to the structure features of AM. Finally, we evaluate the extent to which the outcomes, natural resource management projects, are conducive to Ostrom's (1990) ‘design principles’ for sustainable common-pool resource management. We find that, though no ideal ‘adaptive regime’ is found in Lesotho, the results confirm the AM hypotheses that decentralised decision-making, open information sources, and plurality of user interests lead to improved outcomes. Conversely, elements of the climate regime are found not to be adaptive. Our findings also confirm the appropriateness of AM as a governance approach to climate adaptation.

Analyzing complex water governance regimes: the Management and Transition Framework

▶ Conceptual and methodological framework for analysis of water system transitions. ▶ Comparative analyses of multi-level water governance and management regimes. ▶ Analysis of requirements for adaptive and transformative capacity. This paper presents the Management and Transition Framework (MTF), an interdisciplinary conceptual and methodological framework supporting the analysis of water systems, management processes and multi-level governance regimes. It serves to improve the scientific understanding of system properties and to give practical guidance for the implementation of transition processes towards more adaptive systems. Doing so requires a systemic perspective to embrace complexity and the wealth of interactions characterizing resource governance regimes. The MTF supports and provides guidance for an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences and across the social–natural science interface. The framework integrates a range of concepts to develop a more coherent understanding of the complexity of water management regimes. Specific emphasis is given to adaptive capacity and learning processes. However, the MTF is not linked to one specific theory but provides a language that can be tailored to specific research questions and different theoretical approaches. The structured yet flexible approach is a condition for developing shared databases that allow comparative analyses over a wider range of case studies. The MTF does not promote panaceas but a diagnostic approach supporting context sensitive analysis without being case specific and thus not directly transferable.