Multilevel Governance: Framing the Integration of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Policymaking

ABSTRACT

Scholars embrace multilevel governance as an analytical framework for complex problems, such as climate change or water pollution. However, the elements needed to comprehensively operationalize multilevel governance remain undefined in the literature. This article describes the five necessary ingredients to a multilevel framework: sanctioning and coordinating authority, provision of capacity, knowledge co-production, framing of co-benefits, and engagement of civil society. The framework’s analytical utility is illustrated through two contrasting case examples—watershed management in the United States and air quality management in China. The framework balances local and central actors, which can promote a more effective governance regime.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilevel governance
• sustainability
• environmental protection
• United States
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture program [grant #2014-68006-21834], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant #41571153], and Cornell Univer-sity's Jeffrey Sean Lehman Fund for Scholarly Exchange with China.