Introduction: reasons for rethinking multilevel governance

Multilevel governance has expanded as a research field over the last three decades. With the diffusion of the concept from studies on European integration to international politics, federal systems and central-regional or central-local relations in unitary states, scholars addressed new research questions, introduced different theoretical approaches, applied different methods and advanced empirical knowledge. At the same time, multiple crises, enduring disparities caused by the diversity of local, regional and national economies and rising conflicts between distinct societies and nation-states changed the conditions of multilevel governance. All these are reasons to review the state of research and to rethink multilevel governance.