The 1990s have seen a strong surge in the number of cross-border regions all over Western and Eastern Europe. The article analyses the emergence of these local cross-border institutions in public governance by addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. First, it offers a brief background on the history of cross-border regions in Europe and related EU policies to support them. Second, it provides a conceptual definition of crossborder regions and their various forms and positions within the wider context of other transnational regional networks. Third, it analyses the empirical dimensions of European cross-border regions, including their frequency, geographic distribution and development over time. It concludes by linking cross-border regions and their various forms to institutional conditions in specific countries as well as the effects of European regional policy. It is argued that small-scale cross-border regions have flourished in particular because of their increasingly relevant role as implementation units for European regional policy in a context of multi-level governance.

Cross-Border Regions in Europe: Significance and Drivers of Regional Cross-Border Cooperation

The 1990s have seen a strong surge in the number of cross-border regions all over Western and Eastern Europe. The article analyses the emergence of these local cross-border institutions in public governance by addressing their context, dimensions and causal underpinnings. First, it offers a brief background on the history of cross-border regions in Europe and related EU policies to support them. Second, it provides a conceptual definition of cross-border regions and their various forms and positions within the wider context of other transnational regional networks. Third, it analyses the empirical dimensions of European cross-border regions, including their frequency, geographic distribution and development over time. It concludes by linking cross-border regions and their various forms to institutional conditions in specific countries as well as the effects of European regional policy. It is argued that small-scale cross-border regions have flourished in particular because of their increasingly relevant r...

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Cross-Border Regions in Europe Significance and Drivers of Regional Cross-Border Co-Operation

Drawing together work in comparative politics, public administration, organization theory, and economic sociology, this article describes a distinctive form of modern polity-the ‘networked polity’. In the networked polity, states are strongly embedded in society and pursue their objectives by operating through networks of societal associations. Both state agencies and societal associations take the form of ‘network’ or ‘organic’ organizations-decentralized, team-based organizations with strong lateral communication and coordination that crosses functional boundarieswithin and between organizations. These organizations are then linked together by means of cooperative exchange relationships around common projects. The role of the state is to empower stakeholders and facilitate cooperation among them. The concept is illustrated through an examination of regional development strategies in Western Europe.

The Networked Polity: Regional Development in Western Europe

In this paper I perform a historical and conceptual analysis of multi‐level governance (MLG) in order to tease out its characterizing traits and allow for its utilization for both empirical and normative purposes MLG is a dynamic three‐dimensional concept that blurs and problematizes three analytical distinctions that have been central to the conventional reflection on the European modern state: (1) that between centre and periphery, (2) that between state and society and (3) that between the domestic and the international Each dimension or axis involves, in its turn, changes that occur at three analytical levels: political mobilization, policy‐making and polity restructuring Through the combination of these dimensions I generate a three‐dimensional conceptual space within which the empirical scope and reach of MLG can be gauged and its desirability in normative terms assessed

Multi‐level Governance: a Historical and Conceptual Analysis

Integration in the European Community/Union has progressed on three fronts: the creation of a common market; the development of common institutions; and the forging of common policies. Contrary to the expectations of early functionalist and neo‐functionalist observers, the three have not proceeded in concert. Market integration has progressed a long way, albeit in fits and starts. Institutional integration has lagged. Common policies have proved most difficult of all, especially where they have required funding. The budget of the European Union will amount to a maximum of 1.27 per cent of GDP by 1999. There are two notable exceptions to this: the Common Agricultural Policy, and regional policy, now encompassed in the ‘structural funds’. This article examines two issues. First, we ask how and why regional policy has been able to advance to the point that structural funds now account for almost a third of the Union budget. Second, we ask about the effects of this expansion on political mobilization...

The politics of European union regional policy

Contient : Approaching Collective Action ; Collective Action and Civil Society in Europe ; The Making of a Polity: Interests' Mobilization around European Institutions ; European Integration and Varieties of Capitalism: The Brussels Consensus; The European Burden: Unemployment and Political Behavior ; Beyond State Building: Centres and Peripheries in the European Union ; Collective Action and New Rights ; Interests' Mobilization in the constitutionalization of Europe ; The Regulation of Interest Groups in the European Union ; European Democracy and Social Justice

European Governance and Democracy: Power and Protest in the EU

French Regionalization and European Integration: Territorial Adaptation and Change in a Unitary State

A qui profite l'Europe ? Les interets historiquement organises au sein des Etats-nations sont largement affectes par l'integration europeenne. Un repertoire d'action assez ouvert s'etend aujourd'hui du lobbying bruxellois aux euro-greves. Peut-on parler pour autant d'europeanisation de l'action collective ? Comment ces mobilisations affectent-elles les clivages et les relations entre les groupes d'interet ? Quel eclairage ces processus apportent-ils sur la constitution de l'espace public europeen ? Les travaux rassembles dans cet ouvrage analysent les caracteristiques et les transformations du systeme d'interets europeen. Ils montrent que si la conflictualite sociale prend aujourd'hui une dimension europeenne, c'est moins pour contester l'integration dans ses principes que pour lui donner un tour plus politique.

L'action collective en Europe = Collective action in Europe

Les nouvelles politiques locales : dynamiques de l'action publique

Introduction: Public policy has undoubtedly gone through several very significant changes in the last four decades. In the vast majority of countries and policy areas, the old ‘command and control’ style of decision-making has been initially supplemented and progressively transformed by more complex modes of policy-making, engaging more diversified communities of actors and a wider range of governance patterns. This new institutional setting developed through a combination of processes such as privatization and the use of market instruments, public participation and the mobilization of civil society, and the development of international norms and organizations important in shaping policy-making. Regulation has become the mantra of state intervention in a more open, interactive and participative policy process, where both the market and the society, although with variable access and influence, have become fully legitimate actors. A significant component of these transformations has been a tendency towards decentralization adopted by most countries. Decentralization, understood as the strengthening of capacities for local and intermediary levels of government, has been pursued for a variety of political, economic or cultural reasons. In most cases, central governments turn to decentralization as a strategy to expand the fiscal and administrative capacities of the state. Occasionally, they introduce federal or quasi-federal constitutional arrangements as instruments to manage political conflict. In countries with existing federal constitutions, interactions between states and federal governments tend to intensify as well. A set of converging factors (the expansion of public policies, the search for additional fiscal resources, and the claim for participation and sometimes autonomy at the local level) drives the dynamics of central–local relations. Rather than zero-sum games, they evolve towards patterns of multi-level governance, where central and local levels of governments are increasingly differentiated as well as interdependent. This joint evolution, whereby the differentiation between the levels of governments and the densification of their interaction come together, has been a fundamental element in the transformations of public policy (Loughlin, 2001; Saito, 2008; Fedelino and Ter-Minassian, 2010; Dickovick, 2011)........

Richard Balme

Papers

European Governance and Democracy: Power and Protest in the EU

French Regionalization and European Integration: Territorial Adaptation and Change in a Unitary State

L'action collective en Europe = Collective action in Europe

Les nouvelles politiques locales : dynamiques de l'action publique

Multi‐Level Governance and the Environment: Intergovernmental Relations and Innovation in Environmental Policy