Multilevel Governance — Governance in Mehrebenensystemen

Mutual recognition and the monopoly of force: limits of the single market analogy

“…Seen from this perspective, the primary ambition of the supranational promoters of mutual recognition could be less its immediate effectiveness than the long-term promotion of judicial communication, mutual learning, and ultimately also approximation and trust. As it was hoped in the single market, legal approximation would thus be achieved by default, through a decentralized diffusion mechanism that circumvents the politicized debates in the Council of Ministers (see Benz 2005;Scharpf 1997). Here again, however, the single market analogy has its limits.…”

“…The reason is that for such approximation to occur, participating actors need to see the benefits of changing their laws that outweigh the costs of adaptation. Such an evolutionary approach to mutual recognition relies on market dynamics in a competition for the 'better' kind of regulation (Benz 2005). Contrary to, for example, consumer protection standards, where one may expect a certain public pressure for upward approximation, however, no comparable incentives exist in areas such as refugee law or the rights of criminal suspects.…”

Multi-level governance through adaptive co-management: conflict resolution in a Brazilian state park

“…Multi-level governance is a good concept to be followed here because it refers to steering and coordinating the interdependencies between different territorial levels based on negotiation or competition through the cooperation of public and private actors who are embedded in an institutional rule-making system within each level (Benz 2010). In this study we examine these different levels to understand the governance system as a whole because there are institutions (rules) and actors on different levels that contribute to the governance process.…”

“…In this type of governance mechanism, different social actors at different territorial levels such as the government (federal, regional and city governments), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international financial institutions share power and responsibility, which can prevent and solve conflicts (Benz 2010).…”

The environment as a challenge for governmental responsibility — The case of the European Water Framework Directive

“…Generally speaking, the term "governance" refers to an area of scientific research concerning political processes in different institutional settings and forms of cooperation between different public and private actors (Pierre/Peters 2000, Kooiman 2003, Hooghe/Marx 2003, Benz 2004. In a more specific sense, "governance" is used as the opposite to "government".…”