Multilevel Governance: Framing the Integration of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Policymaking

Abstract

Scholars embrace multilevel governance as an analytical framework for complex problems, such as climate change or water pollution. However, the elements needed to comprehensively operationalize multilevel governance remain undefined in the literature. This paper describes the five necessary ingredients to a multilevel framework: sanctioning and coordinating authority, provision of capacity, knowledge co-production, framing of co-benefits, and inclusion of civil society. The framework's analytical utility is illustrated through two contrasting case exampleswatershed management in the U.S. and air quality management in China. The framework balances local and central actors, which can promote a more effective governance regime.

Shared services in Brazilian local government: Urban development in small counties

“…Coordination is possible even in more complex networks (i.e., those with a greater number of parties; Hovik and Hanssen 2015). Furthermore, capacity in service provision must be aligned with mutual benefits (Homsy et al 2018) to avoid domination.…”

“…Warner and Hefetz (2003) see public sector cooperative agreements as a major alternative to private sector involvement in local public service delivery to small and rural communities since larger local governments have much greater administrative and technical capacity (Schoute et al 2018). While public-public partnerships (PuPs) can play a key role in cooperative agreements (Silvestre et al 2018), a major concern is the differences in power among partners (Agranoff 1998;Terhorst 2008;Homsy et al 2018).…”

Sustainability and Disaster Planning: What Are the Connections?

“…Higher‐level government motivations have no effect, and grassroots pressure actually reduces the level of sustainability actions. Previous studies have found that higher levels of government are important drivers of sustainability actions due to capacity provision or regulation (Andreen ; Homsy et al ). However, this study is one of the first to use a multilevel governance framework, with measures that distinguish local government from higher‐level government motivation.…”

“…Many municipalities cannot determine which potential consequences of climate change should be prioritized in their adaptation plans without additional national guidance (Amundsen, Berglund, and Westskog ). A multilevel governance framework can help communities address broader sustainability issues (Homsy, Liu, and Warner ).…”

A Foundation for Measuring Community Sustainability

“…Cohen [33] attributes the absence of interaction factors to the lack of a theoretical framework for community as opposed to national or global sustainability systems. The lack of recognition of the complex interrelationships between sustainability factors can result in reduced sustainability in some contexts due to the trade-offs that exist between indicators [28,39]. At the same time, a covariance between indicators may lead to the double-counting and skewing of sustainability assessments [28].…”