Environmental governance: participatory, multi‐level – and effective?

Abstract Current political trends and scholarly research increasingly promote collaborative and participatory governance in multi‐level systems as a way to more sustainable and effective environmental policy. Yet empirical findings as well as conceptual works from different academic fields remain ambiguous about this claim. This paper explores whether and to what extent the existence of multiple levels of governance affects the ability of participatory decision‐making to deliver high quality environmental policy output and to improve implementation and compliance. To this end, findings from the literature on multi‐level governance, public participation and policy implementation as well as on complex systems…

• EC
  European Commission
• NA
  National Academy of Sciences