Multi-level governance

The multi-level governance (MLG) approach describes the ways authority is spread vertically and horizontally across multiple jurisdictions that are located at different levels of government and how they connect, interact, and overlap. The approach has inspired research on the complexity, variety, and dynamics of governance beyond the nation-state. However, the MLG approach has yet to make its way into the study of comparative regionalism to inform our understanding of the complexity and dense reality of contemporary regional governance and regional organisations (ROs) around the globe. By adopting a broad definition of ‘governance’ as formal or informal processes of political steering geared towards the provision of public goods and/or collectively binding rules, the chapter discusses a range of governance modes in and between ROs. It covers traditional, hierarchical modes as well as new, non-hierarchical modes of governance. The chapter shows that these modes of governance do not occur in isolation as ROs usually combine different modes rather than relying on a single one. Moreover, the MLG approach allows for capturing relations and modes of governance in an increasingly dense system of overlapping, crisscrossing ROs in all parts of the worlds. Hence, the chapter shifts the focus to governance between ROs, showcases different modes of formalised cooperation and interaction between ROs, and emphasises that governance between ROs also entails different modes of governance. The chapter concludes that scholarship on MLG and comparative regionalism would benefit from more serious engagement to provide better understandings and explanations for the output, outcome, and impact of regional governance as well as the legitimacy of ROs.