This edited volume provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse and multi-faceted research on governance in multilevel systems. The book features a collection of cutting-edge trans-Atlantic contributions, covering topics such as federalism, decentralization as well as various forms and processes of regionalization and Europeanization. While the field of multilevel governance is comparatively young, research in the subject has also come of age as considerable theoretical, conceptual and empirical advances have been achieved since the first influential works were published in the early noughties. The present volume aims to gauge the state-of-the-art in the different research areas as it brings together a selection of original contributions that are united by a variety of configurations, dynamics and mechanisms related to governing in multilevel systems.

Nathalie Behnke is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at the Institute for Political Science, TUDarmstadt, Germany.

Jörg Broschek is Canada Research Chair in Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance and Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

Jared Sonnicksen is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Autorentext

Nathalie Behnke is Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at the Institute for Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Jörg Broschek is Canada Research Chair in Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance and Associate Professor of Political Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.

Jared Sonnicksen is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Political Science, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Inhalt
1.Introduction: the Relevance of Studying Multilevel GovernanceNathalie Behnke, Jörg Broschek and Jared Sonnicksen

Part I: Government, Governance and the State Varied Modes of Coordination in policy-making
2.Transformation of the State and Multilevel GovernanceArthur Benz3.How Bureaucratic Networks Make Intergovernmental Relations Work: A Mechanism PerspectiveNathalie Behnke4.'Governance Fatigue' in Public Administration DiscourseWolfgang Seibel5.Cooperative Administration in Multilevel Governance Analysis: Incorporating Governance Mechanisms into the ConceptNicolai Dose

Part II: Coping with Complexities: Governance in Multilevel Systems
6.Policy-Making as a Source of Change in Federalism: A Dynamic ApproachDietmar Braun and Johanna Schnabel7.National Parliaments as Multi-Arena-Players: A New Deliberative Role within the EU Multilevel System?Katrin Auel8.Intermediary Levels of Governance in Multilevel Systems. Exploring the Second Tier of Local Government from the Assessment of Laymen PoliticiansBjörn Egner9.Bridging the Gap between the Local and the Global Scale? Taming the Wicked Problem of Climate Change through Trans-Local GovernanceJörg Kemmerzell10.Multilevel Coordination in EU Energy Policy: A New Type of Harder Soft Governance?Michèle Knodt11.Soft Law Implementation in the EU Multilevel System: Legitimacy and Governance Efficiency RevisitedMiriam Hartlapp

Part III: Federalism and Democracy
12.The Ambivalence of Federalism and Democracy: The Challenging Case of Authoritarianism with Evidence from the Russian CaseSabine Kropp13.Popular Federalism for a Compound Polity? The Federalism of the Antifederalists and Implications for Multilevel GovernanceDirk Jörke and Jared Sonnicksen14.Multilevel Democracy: A Comparative PerspectiveFritz Scharpf15.On Cross-Level Responsiveness in Multilevel Politics: A Comparison of Airport Expansions in Germany, Switzerland and the UKEike-Christian Hornig16.Demoi-cracy: A Useful Framework for Theorizing the Democratization of Multilevel Governance?Achim Hurrelmann and Joan DeBardeleben17.Extending the Coupling Concept: Slack, Agency and FieldsJohn Erik Fossum

Part IV: Explaining Dynamics in Multilevel Systems
18.The Evolution of Legislative Power-sharing in the EU Multilevel SystemKatharina Holzinger and Jan Biesenbender19.Hidden Power Shifts: Multilevel Governance and Interstitial Institutional Change in EuropeAdrienne Héritier20.Sub-Federal State-Building and the Origins of Federalism: A Comparison of Austria, Germany and SwitzerlandGerhard Lehmbruch21.Conclusion: Governing under the Condition of ComplexityArthur Benz ****