Full Description
Supranational governance is being challenged by politicians and citizens around the EU as over-centralized and undemocratic. This book is premised on the idea that polycentric governance, developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, is a fruitful place to start for addressing this challenge. Assessing the presence of, and potential for, polycentric governance within the EU means approaching established principles and practices from a new perspective. While the debate on these issues is rich, longstanding and interdisciplinary, it has proven difficult to sidestep the 'renationalisation/federalisation' dichotomy. The aim of this volume is not to reject the EU's institutional structure but provide a different benchmark for the assessment of its functioning. Polycentric theory highlights the importance of multilevel horizontal relationships within the EU - between states, but also between many sub-state actors, all the way down to individuals. This helps us answer the question: how do we achieve self-governance in an interdependent world?
Contents
Introduction: the potential of a polycentric European Union Josephine van Zeben and Ana Bobić; 1. Polycentricity as a theory of governance Josephine van Zeben; 2. Polycentric features of the European Union Josephine van Zeben; 3. Democratic self-government in the EU's polycentric system: theoretical remarks Francis Cheneval; 4. Polycentric subsidiary Josephine van Zeben and Kalypso Nicolaïdis; 5. Polycentricity and the internal market Josephine van Zeben and Ana Bobić; 6. The shared system of rules in a polycentric European Union Ana Bobić; 7. The promises and drawbacks of EU citizenship for a polycentric Union Martijn van den Brink; 8. Self-organisation of third-country nationals in the EU: polycentric governance by the 'other' Iris Goldner Lang; 9. Peaceful contestation Damjan Kukovec; 10. Access to justice in polycentric governance Leticia Díez Sanchez; 11. Access to information in polycentric governance Vigjilenca Abazi; 12. The capacity to learn in the polycentric European Union Sacha Garben; Conclusions: pathways to polycentricity Josephine van Zeben and Ana Bobić.
