Suchergebnisse

This article reports a study on the role of the media in democratic governance. Interestingly, this issue has not been given much attention by researchers, neither by media scholars with little interest in governance, nor by governance scholars with little knowledge about how the media works. Yet, as this study substantiates, the media is a key actor in governance. Theoretically, the paper aims at providing a cross-fertilization of perspectives on the role of the media in governance by drawing on governance research as well as on research on political communication & the public sphere. The empirical aim of the paper is to analyze how policy makers assess the importance of the media in governance. A key question addressed is the significance of fostering good media relations in order to be successful in governance in different policy areas. In addition, the paper analyzes the media strategies of policy makers' in terms of the intensity of the media contacts & of whether or not the policy makers themselves initiate the contacts. The study draws on a unique dataset, comprising questionnaire responses from the corporate, political, cultural & administrative elites (policymakers within the central government office) in Sweden. Adapted from the source document.

In analyzing European institutional structures, the multilevel governance literature speaks of mutual interdependence, of cooperative & coordinated processes between different levels of authority. The emergence of these processes is sometimes associated with the disappearance of hierarchical relationships organized across vertical channels of communication. This type of hierarchy, which is declared "eroded," is not further specified. In the first part of the article, a definition of hierarchy is given & an attempt is made to develop a diversified concept of hierarchy consisting of two types: unilateral & asymmetrically interdependent. The second part applies this modified concept of hierarchy to relationship structures in those federations that are part of the European multilevel polity, & examines the types of hierarchy that exist between federal & federated levels when the latter act within the European framework. The external policies of German & Belgian federated units are analyzed in a comparative perspective. Adapted from the source document.

In this article, multilevel governance (MLG) is problematized & treated as a dependent variable. It is argued that processes of globalization shed considerable light on the development of MLG. In order to conceptualize "globalization," I turn to the field of international political economy, specifically, neo-Gramscian critical theory. Since critical theory seems to outline -- above all -- the distinctive political & policy aspects of globalization, the approach gives way to the development of a causal link between globalization & governance. The relevance of globalization to governance & MLG is further shown by elaborating on a particular level of governance: the subnational sphere of the city. It is concluded that critical theory is indeed relevant in explaining globalization & governance, & that a macroperspective can be used in conjunction with a more meso-style, MLG approach. Adapted from the source document.