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The commentary returns to the beginning of the career of multilevel governance as a distinct perspective on the European Union and European integration. At the time, multilevel governance allowed a generation of students to overcome the stylised debates between Liberal Intergovernmentalism and Neofunctionalism on how to best capture the 'nature of the beast'. At the same time, multilevel governance still privileged the role of public authorities over economic and societal actors. While subsequent studies broadened the focus to include the social partners or public interest groups, Hooghe and Marks have retained their public authority bias. The commentary argues that the focus on multilevel government rather than multilevel governance has increased the scope or applicability of Hooghe and Marks' approach, both within the European Union and beyond. At the same time, the government bias has prevented the multilevel governance approach from unlocking its full explanatory potential.

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.

AbstractResearch shows that electoral systems, gender quotas and a country's socio‐economic development affect women's legislative representation (WLR). Less attention is paid to the effects of the rise of regional political arenas and multilevel politics on WLR. Due to less costly and competitive electoral campaigns, women can have easier access to regional legislatures. We argue that this relationship is mitigated by the distribution of competences between the different levels of the political system and that decentralization's effect on WLR at the regional level is dependent on the regions' political power. To test this, we use an original dataset on WLR in 383 regional parliaments in 19 European countries from 1970 to 2018. Results of the three‐level models show that more political authority vested into regions leads to a lower level of WLR in the legislatures of the more politically powerful regions in comparison with not only the regions possessing less authority but also with the national parliament. Possible explanations for this effect, such as the attractiveness of these positions to the mostly male political elite and, consequently, increased costs and competitiveness of electoral campaigns, are suggested.

This commentary takes stock of how Multi-level Governance and European Integration has helped scholars frame empirical research agendas. It focuses on three specific research programmes emanating from the book: (1) the role of identity in multi-level governance, (2) political contestation in multi-level systems, and (3) the effect of multi-level governance on policy outcomes. It aims to highlight existing knowledge in these lines of research whilst offering several critical reflections and directions for future research. The commentary argues that the book's observation that governance structures are ultimately shaped by identities rather than by efficiency considerations has proved almost prophetic given recent backlash against the EU. The book expertly shows that there is an inherent tension in sharing authority across multiple levels of government, and that multi-level systems require constant recalibration and renegotiation of how authority is shared.

The method adopted by Spain in dealing with the legacy of the Civil War and the Dictatorship can be depicted as a blank page approach, incorporating a combination of amnesty and amnesia. Among the actors that challenge this official line, the Autonomous Communities (ACs) particularly energize the post-transitional justice process. Complementing, transcending and superseding the efforts at the national level, the law-making activity in AC legislatures has come in two separate and diverse waves, leading to the development of public policy and institutions dealing with the recovery of memory. Political cycles surface as the factor shaping the resilience of governments' commitment. It is argued that the reinvigorated coexistence of regionalist and left-wing parties in the ACs bodes well for further memory-related policy development and institutionalization. With an interplay and occasional discord between the national and subnational governments, the experience of Spain demonstrates that multilevel governance is an aspect to be reckoned with in relation to how countries deal with their past.

The European Union and the United States are paradigmatic examples of multilevel governance systems that are also regulatory states. In both settings, informal networks of regulators preceded and existed alongside supranational (federal) regulatory agencies. The literature understood their rationale as preparatory to the creation of higher level agencies. This approach, however, cannot explain why informal regulatory networks still exist, years after the establishment of higher level agencies. What explains the persistence of informal regulatory networks? The argument of this article is that in multilevel governance systems, the relationship between regulatory networks and the supranational level of governance is coevolutionary and embodies struggles for autonomy and authority: as the multilevel governance system consolidates, the character of this relationship evolves from collaborative to competitive. The argument relies on a comparative historical analysis of two voluntary networks of energy regulators from the European Union and the United States, based on 27 interviews and archival research.

Even though the province has been a territorial division unit since the unification of Italy, despite the passing of over 150 years it has not been able to obtain a clear institutional identity. Its existence has been repeatedly questioned with attempts of abolition followed by reactivation. The economic crisis of 2008 brought again into question the legitimacy and efficiency of the functioning of the province. The latter was about to be abolished by means of an unsuccessful constitutional reform, which was rejected in the constitutional referendum of December 4, 2016. Nevertheless, in 2014 Parliament adopted the so-called Delrio Act, which did not eliminate the province, but transformed it into the so-called wide territorial unit (enti territoriali di area vasta) together with the newly created metropolitan cities. In Sicily, the provinces were abolished and free consortia were created in their place, while in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region inter-municipal territorial unions were formed. After the reforms carried out as a result of the economic crisis of 2008, the province became only one of many units of an intermediate level of the state structure and its actual significance was related to the policy of a particular region and assigned functions (regional rescaling). The weakening of the political position of the province is associated with its increasing dependence on the region, the elimination of the direct election of its organs, unpaid character of work in provincial bodies and the reduction of financial resources for existing competences. Choć prowincja jest jednostką podziału terytorialnego od zjednoczenia Włoch, to mimo upływu ponad 150 lat nie zdołała uzyskać jednoznacznej tożsamości instytucjonalnej. Podważono jest istnienie wielokrotnie, podejmując próby jej zniesienie a następnie reaktywacji. Kryzys ekonomiczny 2008 roku ponownie poddał pod dyskusję zasadność i efektywność funkcjonowania prowincji wraz z próbą jej likwidacji w drodze nieudanej reformy konstytucyjnej, która została odrzucona w referendum konstytucyjnym z 4 grudnia 2016 r. Parlament uchwalił jednak w 2014 r. tzw. ustawę Delrio, która wprawdzie nie zlikwidowała prowincji, ale przekształciła je w tzw. jednostki terytorialne o szerokim obszarze (enti territoriali di area vasta) wraz z nowopowstałymi miastami metropolitalnymi. Na Sycylii zniesiono prowincje a w ich miejsce utworzono wolne konsorcja, a w regionie Friuli-Wenecja Julijska międzygminne unie terytorialne. Po reformach przeprowadzonych w efekcie kryzysu ekonomicznego 2008 r. prowincja stała się jedną z wielu jednostek pośredniego poziomu struktury państwa, a jej faktyczne znaczenie związane było z polityką konkretnego regionu oraz przydzielonymi funkcjami (regional rescaling). Osłabienie pozycji ustrojowej prowincji wiąże się z coraz większym jej uzależnieniem od regionu, likwidacją bezpośredniego wyboru jej organów, bezpłatnym sprawowaniem funkcji w organach prowincji oraz zmniejszeniem środków finansowych na jej funkcjonowanie.

The reception of asylum seekers in Italy has become an increasingly contentious issue: many actors, public and private, are involved at various levels of government, and cooperative behaviour cannot be taken for granted. The multi-level governance approach sheds light on the possible patterns in vertical relations, while it does not effectively explore the horizontal relations, which are however crucial, especially at the local level. Moreover, we argue that the definition of multilevel governance as negotiated order among public and non-public actors is too rigid and normative. Local policies of reception are instead a playing field where different actors come together with different interests, values and frames. This paper discusses the implementation of asylum seekers' reception in Italy, looking at both the multilevel and the horizontal dynamics, and it uses the concept of 'battleground' in order better to grasp the complexities of the interaction between actors. The article discloses conflicting and competing frames between different tiers of governance, since municipalities try to resist government imposition related to asylum seekers' reception in their areas. As for the horizontal dynamics, this paper argues that four possible patterns emerge in the relation between state and state actors: a) closure vs. civil society activism; b) tolerance; c) institutional activism vs. anti-immigrant mobilizations; d) cooperation. Overall, the paper aims at addressing the limits of the MLG approach by means of a conceptual tool (the "battleground") which yields a more vivid understanding of implementation dynamics.

The reception of asylum seekers in Italy has become an increasingly contentious issue: many actors, public and private, are involved at various levels of government, and cooperative behaviour cannot be taken for granted. The multi-level governance approach sheds light on the possible patterns in vertical relations, while it does not effectively explore the horizontal relations, which are however crucial, especially at the local level. Moreover, we argue that the definition of multilevel governance as negotiated order among public and non-public actors is too rigid and normative. Local policies of reception are instead a playing field where different actors come together with different interests, values and frames. This paper discusses the implementation of asylum seekers' reception in Italy, looking at both the multilevel and the horizontal dynamics, and it uses the concept of 'battleground' in order better to grasp the complexities of the interaction between actors. The article discloses conflicting and competing frames between different tiers of governance, since municipalities try to resist government imposition related to asylum seekers' reception in their areas. As for the horizontal dynamics, this paper argues that four possible patterns emerge in the relation between state and state actors: a) closure vs. civil society activism; b) tolerance; c) institutional activism vs. anti-immigrant mobilizations; d) cooperation. Overall, the paper aims at addressing the limits of the MLG approach by means of a conceptual tool (the "battleground") which yields a more vivid understanding of implementation dynamics.

Holistic and multidisciplinary approaches where both conservation and development goals are in place is one of the global orientations towards sustainability. Science has come together with practical experiences and lessons learned that highlight the critical importance of working at a 'Landscape' level. Landscapes are a pivotal scale for both sustainability and sustainable development. Because landscapes are needed to articulate and interconnect local, subnational, national, and therefore, global goals. International efforts in regards to sustainable rural development are not new; however, they are currently pointing to an Integrated Landscape Approach (ILA). Despite that, there is not yet a universal definition of the ILA; there are some principles or prescriptions that are useful for the assessment of current specific efforts of ILA implementation. In the present thesis, a multi-criteria policy analysis of ILA in Mexico was performed with the aims to identify and analyze multi-level governance initiatives, and policy frameworks, and contribute to the investigation if the landscape approach makes a difference in terms of conservation and sustainable development goals. International frameworks, national policies, and in particular Mexican landscape initiatives were analyzed and discussed. Along with the document analysis, key informant interviews were carried out. The findings confirm that the Landscape Sustainability science framework can be adequate to sustain further multidisciplinary research on ILA. Additionally, the ILA in Mexico has been promoted through at least 10 national policies and 15 landscape initiatives with evident signs of consistency with the ILA aims and principles. It was found that there are several challenges for effective ILA implementation, such as long-term finance and planning and inter-sectorial collaboration within common policy goals. Among these, major "bottlenecks" of effective ILA implementation lie on a Good Landscape Governance and the Willingness of Government ("political will") and Stakeholders to pursue the ILA. The ILA is not the one and only solution for sustainability and sustainable development at the landscape level. Indeed, the ILA still needs scientifically sound research and more long-term capital investments. The findings of this study help to understand that the ILA is an alternative to interconnect the human, social, environmental and economic dimensions within each particular landscape for an effective problem solving, decision-making and implementation of sustainable development.:1. Introduction. 8 1.1. Integrated Landscape Approach for Sustainable Forestry. 8 1.2. Justification on the study focus on Policy and Multilevel Governance in Mexico. 11 2. Objectives. 15 2.1. Overall research objective . 15 2.2. Specific research objectives and Research questions per specific research objective . 15 3. Theoretical Framework. 16 3.1. The science behind: Integrated Landscape Approaches. 16 3.2. Conceptual Framework: Integrated Landscape Approach . 19 3.3. Principles and criteria for Integrated Landscape Approaches. 24 3.4. Environmental and Forestry context in Mexico. 26 4. Methodological Framework. 31 4.1. Research Design . 31 4.2. Indicator matrix assessment for the study. 32 4.3. Stakeholders and key informants interviews. 33 4.4. Data analysis. 34 5. Results. 35 5.1. National framework for ILA . 35 5.2. ILA Initiatives in Mexico. 39 5.3. Findings from interviews analysis with key Informants. 46 6. Discussion . 49 6.1. The international vision . 49 6.1.1 Synthesis knowledge for Integrated Landscape Approaches. 51 6.2. The national vision and the initiatives experiences. 53 6.3. Lessons learned and barriers for implementing ILA: the Mexican experience. 60 7. Conclusion . 64 7.1 Summation . 64 7.2 Suggestions for further research . 65 7.3 Limitations of the study and methodological critique. 66 8. References. 68