A postfunctionalist theory of multilevel governance
| Author | Liesbet Hooghe,Gary Marks |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148120935303 |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Breakthrough Political Science Symposium on Multi-Level Governance |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120935303
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2020, Vol. 22(4) 820 –826
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120935303
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A postfunctionalist theory
of multilevel governance
Liesbet Hooghe1,2 and Gary Marks1,2
Abstract
Multilevel governance describes the diffusion of authority away from the central state. In this
contribution, we recount how an archaic term, governance, became part of the vocabulary of
political science. We then outline three building blocks of a postfunctionalist theory of multilevel
governance. The first is that multilevel governance is cooperation to provide collective goods
at diverse scales. The second is that the form governance takes depends on the sociality of the
participants. The third is that conflict over community enables or impedes multilevel governance.
Keywords
authority, community, governance, multilevel governance, postfunctionalism
The commentaries in this special issue engage the concept of multilevel governance and
the development of a theory, postfunctionalism, that seeks to explain it.1 Each of the
authors represented here has made valuable contributions to the literature on multilevel
governance, and each raises questions about the concept and its explanatory power. We
organise our reply around four themes in the commentaries: the concept of governance,
multilevel governance as a coordination problem, the role of sociality in sustaining coop-
eration, and how conflict over community affects multilevel governance within and
among states.
Governance beyond government
Why use the term governance in the first place? Why not stick with government? Our
answer is that governance is more encompassing than government in ways that are useful
for generalising about political rule. The reason for this lies in their etymology.
The term government in contemporary usage refers to the state.2 When one speaks
of this or that government, it is understood that one is referring to the institutions or
1Department of Political Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
2Robert Schuman Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
Corresponding author:
Gary Marks, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA.
Email: marks@unc.edu
935303BPI0010.1177/1369148120935303The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsHooghe and Marks
research-article2020
Breakthrough Article
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