Policy coordination and power

This chapter considers multilevel governance as policymaking and coordination across boundaries of jurisdictions. Given the diversity of preferences of actors involved and the complications due to intersecting conflicts arising in the different dimensions, power essentially determines the outcome of policymaking. While authority is dispersed between levels, power to coordinate policies emerges in transboundary relations of authorized actors. The chapter introduces three types of transboundary power that appear particularly relevant in multilevel policymaking: bargaining power, epistemic power and power of the last resort. It discusses the effects of these types of power, the need for appropriate balancing power structures and for adjusting the balance to prevent policy coordination from running into decision traps.