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A review essay on books by (1) T. Christensen & P. Laegreid [Eds], Transcending New Public Management: The Transformation of Public Sector Reforms (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007); (2) M. Hill & P. Hupe, Implementing Public Policy (London: Sage, 2008); (3) E. C. Page & B. Jenkins, Policy Bureaucracy: Government with a Cast of Thousands (Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2005); (4) E. Sorenson & J. Torfing, Theories of Democratic Network Governance (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007); & (5) F. Vibert, The Rise of the Unelected: Democracy and the New Separation of Powers (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 2007).

This article explores the capacity of the concept of multi-level governance to respond to the analytical, empirical & normative challenges posed to political science by EU decision-making processes & structures. After exploring the relationship between governance & multi-level governance (MLG), the article tackles the question of the empirical fruitfulness of this latter concept. It argues that the concept is best understood as describing those decision-making processes in which territorial jurisdictions with different competencies end up collaborating on a par, thus upsetting & recasting traditional territorial hierarchies. It also discusses whether MLG, by involving different groups of citizens & fostering the diffusion of shared norms & convictions, contributes to more legitimate decision-making. The conclusions, on all counts, are somewhat mixed. Although MLG appears to describe effectively a new class of phenomena & to suggest intereasing novel hypotheses as to the transformation of the structures of democratic rule, it has not yet succeeded in generating new testable propositions nor in suggesting new convincing criteria of legitimacy. References. Adapted from the source document.

Redefining territoriality is a crucial aspect of the changing nature of public policies in a multi-level, 'post-national' polity. New forms of territoriality in spatial development policies can be thus seen as a key analytical dimension of change in the state's role & rationales in defining public policies. The article addresses emergent practices of territorial governance in a perspective of inquiry on state change, with particular reference to western European countries. The changing nexus between territoriality & the state is addressed according to a 'governance approach' that privileges a policy-driven interpretation of change, & builds on a theoretical framework largely alternative to traditional 'state-centered' approaches. Reference goes to new conceptualizations of socio-spatial structuration processes in the social sciences & to critical reassessments of related geographical concepts in political economy & geography. Particular attention goes to the notion of 'scale', & to 'rescaling' -- i.e. the redefinition of the geographical scales of state regulation & governance -- as a key dimension of state restructuring processes. In this perspective, state-theoretical regulationist approaches are discussed that emphasize the scalar dimension of state restructuring as a key response to the changing position of the state as a site of regulation in a context of inter- & trans-nationalization. References. Adapted from the source document.