Cities have become laboratories for such
‘reinvention’ concepts, something which has
helped portray this level of government as more
dynamic and hence less easy to control by institutions
higher up in the system. Furthermore,
reform stratgies and methods developed at the
local level have later been adopted by state and
federal institutions, something which begs the
question of whether we can still, de facto, speak
of an institutional hieararcy. Thus, administrative
reform has had a clearly noticeable effect
on intergovernmental relationships in the US.
In institutional terms, France represents almost
the opposite end of the spectrum to Germany and
the US. France has, for a long time, been the epitome
of a strong, centralised state with extensive
governance capacity. The decentralisation reforms
that were implemented during the 1980s
changed this pattern to some extent. Even so,
France remains one of the more centralised European
states. But even here, as Hélène Reigner
shows, the previous ‘command and control’ nature
of intergovernmental relations has been
accompanied by negotiated exchanges between
different tiers of government. The central state
is today less dirigiste and allows for more autonomy
at the local level. Also, as is the case in
the US, local authorities in France have become
increasingly important centres of innovation in
public sector reform – something which affects
central–local relationships. Reigner’s article uses
the Ministry of Equipement as a case study to
investigate the new forms of intergovernmental
relationships and outlines a model of what she
calls ‘co-administration’. She reminds us that the
state remains a key player in the French administrative
system but it is less hegemonic today
compared with a couple of decades ago.
Andrew Jordan’s article, finally, looks at multilevel
governance in the European Union. Much
of the early work on multi-level governance was
focused on the relationship between EU institutions,
national and subnational governments.
Jordan asks whether multi-level governance is
as common in the EU context as is often argued
or if it would make more sense to speak of multilevel
government. While there does not
necessarily have to be a contradiction between
the two perspectives – the role of government in
governance is a key issue in governance research
(Pierre and Peters, 2000) – it is important to
remember that governments remain significant
actors in the EU context. Jordan suggests that
the development towards multi-level governance
probably varies between policy sectors; there
exist major differences, for instance, between
environmental policy and economic policy in
these respects.
A common pattern in all these country reports
is that changes in intergovernmental relationships
or developments towards negotiated forms of
institutional exchange that sidestep the hierarchical
model of intergovernmental relationships
are primarily the result of incremental changes
in institutional behaviour that are rarely accompanied
by changes in the legal and institutional
structures governing these institutions. To some
extent, multi-level governance seems to emerge
as the combined result of decentralisation, the
‘hollowing out’ of the state, a shift from an interventionist
towards an ‘enabling state’,
budgetary cutbacks and a growing degree of institutional
self-assertion and professionalism at
the subnational level. These developments are
obviously long-term and incremental in nature.
Hence, we should not expect to see any major
constitutional reform acknowledging these new
intergovernmental relationships for some time
yet. The articles in this issues on these developments
suggest, however, that we need to rethink
much of our historical understanding of the relationship
between the state and regional and
local authorities.
Cities have become laboratories for such
‘reinvention’ concepts, something which has
helped portray this level of government as more
dynamic and hence less easy to control by institutions
higher up in the system. Furthermore,
reform stratgies and methods developed at the
local level have later been adopted by state and
federal institutions, something which begs the
question of whether we can still, de facto, speak
of an institutional hieararcy. Thus, administrative
reform has had a clearly noticeable effect
on intergovernmental relationships in the US.
In institutional terms, France represents almost
the opposite end of the spectrum to Germany and
the US. France has, for a long time, been the epitome
of a strong, centralised state with extensive
governance capacity. The decentralisation reforms
that were implemented during the 1980s
changed this pattern to some extent. Even so,
France remains one of the more centralised European
states. But even here, as Hélène Reigner
shows, the previous ‘command and control’ nature
of intergovernmental relations has been
accompanied by negotiated exchanges between
different tiers of government. The central state
is today less dirigiste and allows for more autonomy
at the local level. Also, as is the case in
the US, local authorities in France have become
increasingly important centres of innovation in
public sector reform – something which affects
central–local relationships. Reigner’s article uses
the Ministry of Equipement as a case study to
investigate the new forms of intergovernmental
relationships and outlines a model of what she
calls ‘co-administration’. She reminds us that the
state remains a key player in the French administrative
system but it is less hegemonic today
compared with a couple of decades ago.
Andrew Jordan’s article, finally, looks at multilevel
governance in the European Union. Much
of the early work on multi-level governance was
focused on the relationship between EU institutions,
national and subnational governments.
Jordan asks whether multi-level governance is
as common in the EU context as is often argued
or if it would make more sense to speak of multilevel
government. While there does not
necessarily have to be a contradiction between
the two perspectives – the role of government in
governance is a key issue in governance research
(Pierre and Peters, 2000) – it is important to
remember that governments remain significant
actors in the EU context. Jordan suggests that
the development towards multi-level governance
probably varies between policy sectors; there
exist major differences, for instance, between
environmental policy and economic policy in
these respects.
A common pattern in all these country reports
is that changes in intergovernmental relationships
or developments towards negotiated forms of
institutional exchange that sidestep the hierarchical
model of intergovernmental relationships
are primarily the result of incremental changes
in institutional behaviour that are rarely accompanied
by changes in the legal and institutional
structures governing these institutions. To some
extent, multi-level governance seems to emerge
as the combined result of decentralisation, the
‘hollowing out’ of the state, a shift from an interventionist
towards an ‘enabling state’,
budgetary cutbacks and a growing degree of institutional
self-assertion and professionalism at
the subnational level. These developments are
obviously long-term and incremental in nature.
Hence, we should not expect to see any major
constitutional reform acknowledging these new
intergovernmental relationships for some time
yet. The articles in this issues on these developments
suggest, however, that we need to rethink
much of our historical understanding of the relationship
between the state and regional and
local authorities.
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