Understanding multilevel governance

To clarify the definition of multilevel governance this chapter addresses three questions: What does governance mean? What characterizes a level of governance? And how many levels does multiple indicate? In addition, the chapter presents an analytical model of multilevel governance. It draws attention to the interplay of the vertical (inter-level) and horizontal (intra-level) dimensions of multilevel politics and the linkage between politics inside and across jurisdictions. This model provides a framework for studying the varieties of multilevel governance. Considering theory, it implies that multilevel politics aims at coordinating complex policies across boundaries of jurisdictions and at the same time affects or changes the distribution of power between levels.