Different tiers of government in port governance: some general remarks on the institutional geography of ports in Europe and Canada

For the last thirty years, port governance has been marked by a new level of complexity which has resulted in the reshaping of the system of actors involved in the organization of ports. Devolution, which is taking place on most of the world's port ranges has thus altered the public-private division, i.e. the respective roles played by the different tiers of overnment and private operators in operation and regulation functions. There is an abundant literature on this topic, particularly in economics and management and the work of international organizations. This research has cast much light on the new modes of governance and is now attempting to explain how they are linked to port performance Models of port governance frequently consider the "public sector" to be a homogeneous entity and rather less research has examined its variety, i.e. the different categories of public sector actors that run the institutional levels that control the ports. The aim of this paper is thus to provide some insights into this question of the institutional geography of ports by identifying the various tiers of government, the functions they perform and how they are linked with each other in a number of ports. It draws on the main findings of research carried out for the French General Directorate for the Sea and Transport that aimed to shed light on public decision-making and the institutional models applied in port governance in 7 European countries and Canada. It therefore examines port statuses and legislation, supervision, monitoring, management and public finance in order to understand the diversity of the public sector presence in port models that are founded on different institutional geographies.