Multilevel governance: Identity, political contestation, and policy
| Author | Hanna Kleider |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148120936148 |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Breakthrough Political Science Symposium on Multi-Level Governance |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120936148
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2020, Vol. 22(4) 792 –799
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120936148
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Multilevel governance: Identity,
political contestation,
and policy
Hanna Kleider
Abstract
This commentary takes stock of how Multi-level Governance and European Integration has helped
scholars frame empirical research agendas. It focuses on three specific research programmes
emanating from the book: (1) the role of identity in multi-level governance, (2) political contestation
in multi-level systems, and (3) the effect of multi-level governance on policy outcomes. It aims to
highlight existing knowledge in these lines of research whilst offering several critical reflections
and directions for future research.
The commentary argues that the book’s observation that governance structures are ultimately
shaped by identities rather than by efficiency considerations has proved almost prophetic given
recent backlash against the EU. The book expertly shows that there is an inherent tension in
sharing authority across multiple levels of government, and that multi-level systems require
constant recalibration and renegotiation of how authority is shared.
Keywords
European integration, federalism and decentralisation, multi-level governance, policy, political
contestation, territorial identity
In Multi-level Governance and European Integration, Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks
examine the fundamental shift of authority away from national governments that occurred
during the post-war period. The ambitious goal of the book is to offer an integrated expla-
nation for the upward shift of authority towards supranational organisations as well as the
downward shift of authority to subnational governments. When it was first published,
almost 20 years ago, the book radically changed the theoretical debate about the nature of
European integration. In contrast to neofunctionalists and intergovernmentalists (Haas,
1958; Moravcsik, 1998) who focused on the role of national governments in relation to
the European Union (EU), Hooghe and Marks called into question the prevalent meth-
odological nationalism and expanded the set of relevant actors to include subnational
governments (Schakel and Jeffery, 2013). Perhaps more importantly, they argued that
actor’s economic interests are only one of many considerations driving the EU integration
process, with identity considerations being equally as important.
Department of Political Economy, King’s College London, London, UK
Corresponding author:
Hanna Kleider, King’s College London, 30 Aldwych, London WC2R 2LS, UK.
Email: hanna.kleider@kcl.ac.uk
936148BPI0010.1177/1369148120936148The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsKleider
article-commentary2020
Breakthrough Article
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