Regional Governance Structures Research Articles

Developing a Regional Open Space Strategy (ROSS) for Central Puget Sound, Washington State, USA

Ecosystem services provided by the landscapes of regions and cities are critical to human and environmental health, quality of life, environmental justice, biodiversity and climate mitigation and adaptation. In the Pacific Northwest region of the US, a team led by the University of Washington Green Futures Lab is working to identify, conserve and enhance regionally-significant landscapes and to evaluate their contributions as ecosystem or “open space” services. This paper outlines the goals and planning methods of the ongoing Regional Open Space Strategy for Central Puget Sound (ROSS) project, and the frameworks and processes being developed to evaluate ecosystem and open space services in order to inform and influence local and regional governance structures and decisions.

The Long Road to State-Building in Latin America and its Impact on Regionalization Processes

<p><span>El artículo aborda, desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria, el impacto que el largo y tortuoso proceso de construcción del Estado en Latinoamérica ha tenido sobre la forma en que se han desarrollado los procesos de regionalización en el subcontinente. Primero, se contrastan las ideas clásicas y contemporáneas sobre la soberanía, a fin de establecer de forma diferenciada la manera en que dicho principio, desde una perspectiva histórica, ha tomado forma en la construcción del Estado y en la concreción de procesos de regionalización tanto en Latinoamérica como en Europa. Segundo, se presentan los elementos generales del pensamiento sobre la integración europea conectándolos con su experiencia histórica. Tercero, se interpreta el proceso de construcción de los Estados nación latinoamericanos y el impacto que haN tenido en su renuencia a ceder soberanía a entes supranacionales. Cuarto, se destaca el rol que han desempeñado ideas, tales como el panamericanismo, latinoamericanismo, suramericanismo y bolivarismo en el desarrollo de los procesos de regionalización en Latinoamérica. Quinto, se definen los rasgos característicos de las tres olas de integración y la renuencia de los Estados latinoamericanos a transferir soberanía a las arquitecturas de gobernanza regional. Sexto, se<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>compara el concepto de soberanía en América Latina y en Europa así como el impacto que ha tenido en sus respectivos procesos de regionalización. Finalmente a partir de la compresión de la problemática del proceso inconcluso de construcción del Estado en Latinoamérica, se evalúan las perspectivas de desarrollo de los procesos de regionalización actuales.</span></p>

New green professions in Bulgaria in the context of transition to green economy

Transition to green economy sets new requirements and challenges for the types of jobs, skills and knowledge. The paper analyzes and evaluates the importance of categories of green professions by sectors in Bulgaria. The main applied methodical approach for analysis and evaluation of green professions is a system approach. Assessment and analysis of the importance of categories of green professions by sectors is made on the basis of structured interviews with municipal experts from regional government structures involved in the process of implementation of green jobs in the country. According to aggregated and analyzed information are proposed policy recommendations and general conclusions related to implementation of training programs for green employment, use of the best European and world practices for the application of new green professions, improvement of consulting services, changing legal frame work of green jobs, etc.

Agricultural innovation and adaptation to climate change: empirical evidence from diverse agro-ecologies in South Asia

While impacts of climate change on agricultural systems have been widely researched, there is still limited understanding of what agricultural innovations have evolved over time in response to both climatic and non-climatic drivers. Although there has been some progress in formulating national adaptation policies and strategic planning in different countries of South Asia, research to identify local-level adaptive strategies and practices is still limited. Through eight case studies and a survey of 300 households in 15 locations in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, this paper generates empirical evidence on emerging agricultural innovations in contrasting socio-economic, geographical and agro-ecological contexts. The study demonstrates that several farm practices (innovations) have emerged in response to multiple drivers over time, with various forms of institutional and policy support, including incentives to reduce risks in the adoption of innovative practice. It further shows that there is still limited attempt to systematically mainstream adaptation innovations into local, regional and national government structures, policies and planning processes. The paper shows that the process of farm-level adaptation through innovation adoption forms an important avenue for agricultural adaptation in South Asia. A key implication of this finding is that there is a need for stronger collaborations between research institutions, extension systems, civil society and the private sector actors to enhance emerging adaptive innovations at the farm level.

The development eraser: fantastical schemes, aspirational distractions and high modern mega-events in the Oecusse enclave, Timor-Leste

The array of challenges to durably improving rural peoples' lives in remote regions is so daunting that it can be tempting to erase what is there, and to seek a blank slate. This tension is being played out in the OecusseAmbeno enclave of Timor-Leste, a region long familiar with geographic and political isolation. Residents now encounter a new iteration of their unique status: rapid declaration of their region as a special economic zone (ZEESM), with a new regional governance structure and an appointed leadership. The advent of this new zone is meant to catapult Oecusse from its current state of chronic infrastructure and basic development challenges to a booming economic center and a fount of national income in short order. Early emphasis is placed on rapid, major coastal infrastructure construction deemed necessary for the November 2015 commemoration of the 500th anniversary of Portuguese arrival, with the hallmarks associated with high modernism and mega-event preparation worldwide: spatial re-ordering and regulation; a strong orientation to external inputs, resources, and services; and centralized control of rapid infrastructure change. This article investigates the ideological underpinnings of these plans, and explores the irony of how the proposals and their governance arrangement are a disjuncture with Oecusse as a historically important place. It concludes with observations on this project's place in the national development context, and the likely costs and impacts of development for the Oecusse population. Risks include further political and economic marginalization of the mountain-dwelling and rural population, local residents' loss of productive agricultural land and access to water, reduced protection through administrative exclusion from national political structures, and the opportunity costs of misdevelopment's aspirational distractions.Key words: Special Economic Zone; high modernism; mega-event; Timor-Leste; Oecusse Ambeno; economic development

The durability of European Regional Development Fund partnership and governance structures: a case study of the Scottish Highlands and Islands

This paper explores the ways in which European Union Regional Policy, particularly the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), operates in a multi-level governance framework in which stakeholders at sub-national, national and European levels work together in partnership to deliver the European funding. Focusing upon the case of the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland, the paper analyses the ways in which partnership and governance structures have evolved over successive ERDF programming periods between 2000–2006 and 2007–2013. In particular, the paper illustrates the ways in which the Highlands and Islands’ ERDF governance structures were built upon a ‘broad’ and ‘deep’ level of partnership amongst key stakeholders, especially in the 2000–2006 programme. For various reasons, including a significant reduction in its ERDF funding allocation, the level of partnership working was streamlined during the 2007–2013 programme. Importantly, however, the durability of the governance structures has been maintained.

Steering or Networking: The Impact of Europe 2020 on Regional Governance Structures

This article probes into how regions organize themselves to deal effectively with the Europe 2020 reform program. More specifically, it maps governance structures of regional policy-making and implementation of Europe 2020 and explains variation in these structures between policy domains and policy stages. The empirical focus is Flanders as this Belgian region possesses substantial legislative and executive autonomy and is therefore highly affected by the Europe 2020 program. The article distinguishes between policy-making (upload) and implementation stages (download) in education, energy and poverty policies. It is hypothesized that the varying impact of Europe 2020 can be attributed to the varying adaptational pressure of EU programs and a set of domestic intervening factors. Findings indicate variation between policy domains and policy stages on a continuum from lead-organization governed networks to shared participant governance networks. Overall, the extent to which Flanders is competent seems to be crucial. In addition, a substantial administrative capacity is needed to firmly steer and coordinate the governance structures that manage Europe 2020 policies. The level of integration further increases the extent to which Flemish Europe 2020 policies are steered.

Strategic Behaviour and Crisis-Driven Change in Regulation and Governance of the European Financial and Economic System: From Networks to Hybrids

A key challenge that European decision-makers struggle with today is regulating and governing the European financial and economic system in a way that is both effective and legitimate. To help address this challenge, this paper asks why regulatory gaps occurred and European governance has been weak, and how these gaps and weaknesses allowed risky behaviour. It then scrutinizes the regulatory governance structures that have emerged in response, particularly at the EU level, to coordinate the financial and economic system. Two illustrative cases are examined: self-regulation by and national supervision of banks and ‘decentred’ fiscal policy coordination by eurozone countries. We point to strategic behaviour as a key driver of the crisis. We also argue that changes in regulatory governance to curb such behaviour have entailed introduction of some form of hierarchy at the supranational level, yet still combined with strong network characteristics, thus creating or strengthening hybridity in regulatory governance.

ESTRUTURAS DE GOVERNANÇA, COOPERAÇÃO E LEGITIMIDADE NA CONSTRUÇÃO DO DESENVOLVIMENTO REGIONAL NO INTERIOR DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO: ALGUMAS NOTAS PRELIMINARES

This article is based on the preliminary results of a survey that seeks to relate regional sustainable development and governance structures in the state of Sao Paulo. The search for sustainable regional development is a complex task that requires various stakeholders to cooperate in this matter. However, in the state of Sao Paulo, cooperation is limited by the influences posed by worldwide and brazilian contexts. Based on secondary data and interviews, the article proposes a possible explanation to the concepts of social actors, institutions and legitimacy.

Planning for the Future of the Electric Power Sector through Regional Collaboratives

As it undergoes rapid evolutionary change, the electric power sector has become highly fragmented and complex, with divided responsibilities, lopsided investments, and insufficient coordination to set goals and meet them. The use of regional collaborative governance structures might reimagine the goals and governance of the sector.

Bridging the Gap? The Role of Regional Governance in Delivering Effective Local Public Services: Evidence from England

Between 2004 and 2010 local area agreements (LAAs) represented a key part of the New Labour Government's agenda for local government in England, which centred on increasing the level of involvement that local areas had in the issues affecting them. To deliver this agenda, New Labour deployed government offices for the regions (GOR) to negotiate with localities on behalf of central government. As part of a broader consideration of the role of regional governance structures in delivering local public services, this paper draws upon the results of a national survey of LAA practitioners in England, and findings from more detailed case study work, to consider the role of GOR in the LAA process. These findings examine the role GOR played in negotiating LAA targets and the extent to which these negotiations allowed local areas to respond to local issues and priorities. Then, by considering local enterprise partnerships and the recently established combined authorities, the paper will consider how localism policy under the Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government, who came to power in 2010, has responded to the lessons of the LAA. In doing so, the paper seeks to fit into the wider discussion about how local public services can be delivered effectively and draw out the challenges faced by those trying to link local and central policy together.

Contested leadership in international relations

The articles in this special issue examine the responses to the rise of new and emerging powers including Brazil, China, India and South Africa across different regions. Rather than focus on great powers and hegemons, the contributors address the contestation between regional powers, and secondary and tertiary states. The contributors address three questions: What are the drivers of different strategic responses? What are the different regional responses to shifts in the distribution of material capabilities? What is the influence of agency and structure in contested regional orders? To address these questions, different schools are employed including realism, institutionalism, and the English school to examine state characteristics, systemic, sub-systemic, domestic constraints and opportunities, the role of ideas and shared values, and different regional governance structures.

Revenue Adequacy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This paper examines the concept of revenue adequacy, a benchmark of United States railroad firms' financial performance calculated annually by regulatory oversight bodies. The paper addresses questions around the origins, measurement, informational provisions, value and policy benefits and costs of revenue adequacy. An examination of the historical origins, measurement, and informational provisions of revenue adequacy generates insights into the motivations for and limitations of this concept. A financial benchmarking exercise assesses revenue adequacy in the rail industry relative to both a narrowly defined set of comparable industries and a broader set of publicly-traded non-financial companies operating in the U.S, and indicates little differentiates railroads from these comparison sets over the past dozen years. A nonfinancial examination assesses whether the railroad industry has made continued rail transportation system improvements given its regulatory governance structure, and concludes that significant strides toward the goal of achieving a “safe, adequate, economical, efficient, and financially stable Rail transportation system” as established in the Staggers Rail Act have been made. The paper concludes with policy reflections that identify prospective good, bad and ugly applications of revenue adequacy.

A Comprehensive Framework for Analyzing Market Performance and Industry Regulation: A Cross-Country Comparison in Telecommunications

This study applies factor analytic techniques to 131 telecommunications regulatory agencies in 80 countries to develop a comparative framework for better understanding the cross-national institutional variation in industrial regulation. While some of these measures are specific to the telecom industry (i.e., WTO Basic Telecom Agreement participation), most of these regulatory variables can be applied to other regulated industries. After analyzing thirty variables, these techniques identify and quantify six distinct dimensions of industry regulation, namely, the competitive market structure rules, industry standards rules, entry barrier rules, institutional stability, political appointment process and the regulatory governance structure. Despite the conventional wisdom that suggests the rules of the game are key to industry regulation, this study finds that the single largest source of cross-national variation is the level of regulatory institutional stability (accounting for 16% of the total variation in cross-national industry regulation). This suggests that more focus and attention should be given to the role formal institutions play in industry regulation. This study also finds differences in industry regulation between developed, developing, and least-developed nations. Developed countries on average have significantly higher regulation with the U.S being the highest. This suggests that regulation is a critical component of industrial regimes and the competitiveness of developed economies.

Cross‐national variations in industry regulation: A factor analytic approach with an application to telecommunications

AbstractThis study applies factor analytic techniques to 131 telecommunications regulatory agencies in 80 countries to develop a comparative framework for better understanding the cross‐national institutional variation in industrial regulation. While some of these measures are specific to the telecom industry (i.e. World Trade Organization Basic Telecom Agreement participation), most of these regulatory variables can be applied to other regulated industries. After analyzing 30 variables, these techniques identify and quantify six distinct dimensions of industry regulation, namely, the competitive market structure rules, industry standards rules, entry barrier rules, institutional stability, political appointment process, and the regulatory governance structure. Despite the conventional wisdom that suggests the “rules of the game” are key to industry regulation, this study finds that the single largest source of cross‐national variation is the level of regulatory institutional stability (accounting for 16 percent of the total variation in cross‐national industry regulation). This suggests that more focus and attention should be given to the role formal institutions play in industry regulation. This study also finds differences in industry regulation between developed, developing, and least developed nations. Developed countries on average have significantly higher regulation, with the US being the highest. This suggests that regulation is a critical component of industrial regimes and the competitiveness of developed economies.

Transcarpathia – Ukrainian border region at the edge of the EU. Internal and external representations

Abstract. Starting from 1918, multiethnic Transcarpathia changed after centuries of being an integrated part of Hungary frequently its political affiliation and is since 2004 a Ukrainian border region to the European Union. Three of the four European Union neighbour countries belong since 21.12.2007 to the Schengen zone (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary), only the southern neighbour Romania is for the time being not yet a Schengen country. After a phase of relatively open borders and relatively intensive neighbourhood relations in the first transformation years, by the Schengen regime the situation for Transcarpathia changed again. The current situation, possibly still to be intensified by the Schengen entry of Romania, is likely to persist for some time. What does this mean for Transcarpathia as well as for the wider region in the northeast of the Pannonian basin? Which factors are determining the development in Transcarpathia? Which position maintains Transcarpathia within the Ukraine, how does it look at Kiev and how is it looked at by Kiev and the cis-Carpathian areas of the Ukraine? The paper deals under these aspects with economic development in Transcarpathia, the interest of foreign investors in the region, its role in the continental transportation network, the identity of the Slavonic population majority and regionalism, also with the position of the large Hungarian minority in the region and its relation to the motherland. The paper is based on a larger research project completed and published already in 2004 (Peter Jordan, Mladen Klemenčić: Transcarpathia – Bridgehead or Periphery?), but adopts also the results of a later diploma work of a student of the author (Berenike Ecker) as well as results of more recent research by the author himself. It is found that shaping by Hungarian history, borderland location and multiethnic structure can be defined as the essential components of Transcarpathian identity. Its economic potentials and perspectives rest mainly in richness in wood, its pleasant landscape and mineral waters, its location in the European traffic network, its border location and bridge function, the rich language skills of its population, the region's Central European character. By post-Communist industrialisation (wood processing, food industry, electrotechnical industry) and due to intense transborder relations of the Hungarian minority the region was able to make some progress during the transformation period, but could not yet escape its economically peripheric position. Major obstacles for a better development can be identified in an all but market-conform agriculture, in the Schengen regime cutting Transcarpathia off especially from Slovakia and Hungary as well as in Ukrainian regional governance structures enforcing centralist attitudes at the two levels of regional administration.

Losing grasp over the global financial system: the retreat of the North vs. the advance of the South

During the past decade the world has witnessed an unprecedented rise of emerging powers across the developing world. This development, accelerated by the recent global financial crisis, has led to a gradual increase of emerging powers involvement in international governance structures. Unlike the past, when the economic rise of new players such as Japan and the European Union (EU) somewhat challenged the American economic supremacy but did not alter much in the global landscape, the new wave of challengers seem to have the capabilities not only to change the balance within global governance structures but can also potentially shift the very structures themselves. To this end, emerging powers seem to increase their pressure over reform processes through their coordination as well as the institutionalization of alternatives to existing global and regional governance structures that fit more to their understanding of the world.

Mobilizing Enterprises for Regional Innovation Policies

During the last decades a paradigmatic change in regional policies has occurred: Cohesion oriented policies gave place to policies focusing on economic growth by innovation. In consequence also the consignees of regional policies changed: in the past public institutions responsible for infrastructural measures received most of regional funding; now mainly enterprises are addressed. Though, located enterprises do not automatically get involved with regions' development processes. How can they be mobilized for these issues? Primarily on the base of the Swiss experiences with ist innovation oriented New Regional Policy (NRP) the article first illustrates the status quo, which role enterprises currently play in regional innovation policies. Secondly, the crucial factors are discussed which determine the interplay of entrepreneurial and public rationalities in the context of regional innovation policies. And third the article derives suggestions from these assessments for the design of regional innovation policies and corresponding regional governance structures.

Local and Regional Governance Structures

This article explores the complex, multidimensional implications of decentralized local and regional governance structures with an emphasis on the following four major aspects: (1) fiscal outcomes, (2) regional economic implications, (3) social equity issues, and (4) environmental consequences. It is contended that a holistic approach, covering various aspects of the implications and revealing the context-specific trade-offs, is required to better understand the nature of the governance systems. A comprehensive view may also be essential for facilitating a more salient dialogue on potential system reforms and spurring meaningful efforts to improve the quality of the systems from the bottom up.

Throwing the Baby Out With the Bath Water? The Impact of Coalition Reforms on Identifying Sub-National Transport Priorities in England

The coalition government has set out plans to dismantle the regional tier and return powers to localities and Whitehall departments. These changes will have significant implications for the way in which transport policy is formulated and delivered in England. When in power, New Labour introduced a range of measures to strengthen governance arrangements for promoting a more joined-up and decentralised approach to transport policy, including Regional Funding Allocations (RFAs). This paper examines the opportunities and limitations of the RFA process and considers the consequences of removing these regional structures for transport policy in England. We conclude that important progress made in recent years to develop effective arrangements for identifying transport priorities at the sub-national tier could be derailed by the Coalition's intention to remove regional governance structures in their entirety.