Current Debates on Federalism and Multi-Level Governance

Driven by European integration and domestic decentralization, Europe has spent decades as the primary laboratory for territorial multilevel politics. Researchers have mostly studied these shifts through the lens of functional alignment. However, the narrative of a “Europe of the Regions” has increasingly collided with structural crises – ranging from Eurozone shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic to populism and a return to national border-logic. These dynamics – notwithstanding empirical evidence that policy diffusion and cross-border cooperation thrive when subnational entities hold significant authority – have fundamentally challenged established frameworks of federalism, multilevel governance, and interlinked concepts such as devolution, regionalism, and decentralization.
To dissect these strains, this panel invites papers that discuss foundational concepts and cutting-edge research agendas considering three pivotal pillars of federalism and multilevel governance literature. By examining classic pillars of regional and federal studies (power distribution, second chambers, intergovernmental relation, and fiscal transfers) against contemporary social pressures, the panel aims to test whether the core facets taught in textbooks can withstand modern polycrises, whether crisis-induced executive overreach results in permanent authority migration away from subnational governments, whether multilevel systems are breaking down or whether and how they unexpectedly adapt, and whether and how diverse multilevel institutional designs and power dynamics affect policy outputs.
This panel welcomes comparative case studies as well as theoretical understanding of the issues mentioned above and more from interdisciplinary perspectives.