Regional governance

In recent years, there has been a resurgence of regionalism and regional initiatives in the Southwest Pacific, driven primarily by the Australian government. There is little doubt that the new regionalism has largely been prompted by the Australian government's realigned security agenda following the September 11 and Bali terrorist attacks, and broader concerns about 'non-traditional' security risks. However, what is novel about this recent drive for regionalism in the Southwest Pacific is that rather than constituting a transformation of the interstate terrain, it is primarily aimed at the transformation of the state itself. The spaces where the new regionalism is found are mainly located within states. Earlier forms of regionalism, which to some extent continue to exist, typically involved intergovernmental agreements to facilitate freer trade or establish defence alliances between states. In contrast, the new regionalism constitutes various modes of multilevel governance that work to selectively dislodge the linkages between territory and political authority and/or jurisdiction, building transnational forms of regulation and surveillance into the state. This is not simply a descriptive issue but one that has considerable implications for our analysis of the social and political implications of such regional programs, as well as the kinds of coalitions emerging to support or resist these.

Die Energiewende ist eines der entscheidenden Themen unserer Zeit. Neue regionale Formen der Steuerung, Koordination und Kooperation sind in diesem Kontext politisch wie wissenschaftlich viel diskutiert. Subsumiert unter dem Begriff Regional Governance scheinen neue Wege der strategischen Steuerung der beste Weg zu sein, um den Prozess des Wandels der Energiewirtschaft zu initiieren.

Anhand einer in Greater Manchester (England) durchgeführten Untersuchung werden in diesem Band drei Themenkomplexe bearbeitet: Merkmale, Funktionsweisen und Wirkung regionaler Steuerung im Kontext des Umgangs mit dem Themenfeld der Energieversorgung. Es zeigt sich, dass Regional Governance nicht nur die Implementierung von erneuerbaren Energien in Entwicklungskonzepte, sondern auch deren konkrete Umsetzung beschleunigen kann.

Asian urbanization has been typified by, among other things, the growth of rural-urban regions, in which functional urban areas have extended beyond established city boundaries into their immediate rural zones. In dealing with this extended urbanization, in the context of decentralizing Indonesia, urban-rural cooperation has become an important issue. This chapter explores key success factors of interlocal government cooperation in Greater Yogyakarta, which has shown evidence of effective regional infrastructure provision and rural environmental protection. By assessing the mechanism, process, and typology of the cooperation practiced, it reveals that there are several key success factors enabling effective interaction and collaboration between the participating urban and rural governments. The key success factors include common vision sharing and the building of strong leadership, a horizontal dialogue process, and openness and transparency.

S ince its establishment in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has shown little interest in facilitating the participation of non-state actors in its decision-making processes. ASEAN is well-known for its elitist tendencies and for how few of its policies correspond to the needs of Southeast Asian people. At the same time, it could also be argued that ASEAN has become this way due to the lack of pressure from non-state actors on the Association. However, during its infancy, most ASEAN member countries were governed by authoritarian regimes which made it difficult for social pressure to emerge, both at the national and regional levels. In time for ASEAN’s plan to introduce an ASEAN Charter and to establish an ASEAN Community, the Association
has begun to realize that there is widespread criticism of ASEAN’s closed and exclusive nature. These developments not only suggest that ASEAN should address its democracy deficit, but also that civil society groups are now ready to engage with ASEAN and its activities. ASEAN
is indeed under pressure from the citizens of its member countries to make ubstantial changes in its modus operandi. Unless such attempts are made, the Association will lose its significance to
the people of the region.

This article examines the inward-out influence from Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) to extra-regionally based actors, here defined as non-ASEAN stakeholders, in regional cooperation on climate change. The case study on the ASEAN Multi-Sectoral Framework on Climate Change (AFCC) indicates that non-ASEAN stakeholders underwent 'ASEANization' when adapting their rhetoric and practices in line with regional normative contexts and interests. In the forestry sector of AFCC where power asymmetry favored non-ASEAN actors, a relatively low level of ASEANization occurred as non-ASEAN stakeholders glossed over complex issues and constructed coherence between local and outside agendas. In the agricultural sector where power asymmetry was not as prevalent, a higher level of ASEANization unfolded where non-ASEAN stakeholders became more flexible on mitigation agendas, given strong regional resistance to go beyond adaptation. Moreover,

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

La crise économique a-t-elle recentralisée la décentralisation? L’hypothèse avancée ici est celle d’une poussée des dynamiques de métropolisation et de régionalisation en France sous la conjugaison de processus de convergence commun à l’ensemble de l’Union européenne (UE). Cependant, ces processus de convergence empruntent des sentiers institutionnels et politique distincts selon les régions dessinant une forte différenciation des configurations territoriales. En Bretagne, le modèle régional semble s’imposer progressivement. En Île-de-France, une métropolisation puissante est en voie d’institutionnalisation à l’initiative de l’État tandis qu’en Rhône-Alpes, le fait métropolitain semble concurrencer sinon supplanter une régionalisation à la croisée des chemins.

The paper reports on both methodological and substantive findings. It presents a method for generating simplified representations for regional urban populations, their geographical sub-populations and communities. the method generates greatly simplified high-resolution socio-economic profiles of populated geographical areas from complex large census data sets.

En el ámbito de descentralización política Chile destaca al ser una de las pocas democracias modernas donde las máximas autoridades subnacionales son designadas por el gobierno central, situación que cambiaría recién en 2020 donde serán electas por voto popular. ¿Por qué esta medida demoró tanto tiempo en ser aprobada? 
El objetivo de este trabajo fue analizar a los parlamentarios en la reforma constitucional de elección de gobernadores regionales. Se utilizaron herramientas cuantitativas para determinar niveles de apoyo al proyecto analizado, por lo que se clasificaron a los congresistas por variables: “ideológica”; “racional-eleccionaria” y de “historia de vida”.
Como resultado se obtuvo que las variables de “historia de vida” e “ideológica” fueron las que mejor explicaron el comportamiento de los legisladores, ya que los parlamentarios con una historia de vida más relacionada a regiones, así como aquellos ligados a la izquierda, fueron los que más apoyaron esta reforma.

"The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a largely intergovernmental regional organization, established a regional tribunal with supranational features, only to suspend it after it produced an undesirable ruling. This represents a unique and puzzling case of governance transfer ‘roll-back’. We argue that intrinsic demand for the establishment of the Tribunal at the level of the Summit – SADC’s ultimate authority – was never high to begin with, and that it was adopted mainly as a donor-pleasing accessory. When the Tribunal overstepped its mandate relatively early in its life, not only granting itself jurisdiction in the realm of human rights, but also ruling against the Zimbabwean government in a politically sensitive case, it was dismantled by the Summit. But if donor incentives played a role in establishing the Tribunal, they cannot explain its suspension. Furthermore, institutionalist approaches would claim that a ‘lock-in’ effect should prevent institutionalized commitments at the regional level from being undone. We explain this in terms of ‘reading from the donor script’, which results in poorly embedded institutions lacking real commitment at the executive level. Developing states are only willing to read from the donor script so long as it does not threaten their core interests, which in the case of SADC are strongly informed by the region’s history and political culture. Our findings are informed by in-depth interviews with twelve experts connected to the Tribunal, which took place between May and July 2013 in Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa. The case study contributes to a better understanding of the scope conditions for progress and regression in governance transfer by highlighting the existence of a donor script informing governance transfer in recipient regions. First, we offer a brief overview of SADC’s promotion of human rights, democracy, rule of law and good governance before zooming in on the story of the establishment and suspension of the Tribunal."

The concept of post-hegemonic regionalism describes the scenario that characterised Latin American regionalism in the last two decades. It first builds from Amitav Acharya’s work where he envisages the end of United States hegemony and proposes conceptualising a world order of multiple competitions, a scenario that he calls multiplex world.  To a large extent post-hegemonic regionalism grew at odds with US regional and hemispheric ambitions of market-led governance and in a context of weakened US hegemony in Latin America. With this in mind, post-hegemonic regionalism is both a theory-based concept and a strategy. This article fleshes out the features of post-hegemonic regionalism and places it in context. It analyses the theoretical purchase of the concept and how it manifested in Latin America. It also reviews the research agenda initiated and how the concept has branched out in the field of study leading to variegated controversies and debates.

Este artículo examina si el creciente papel de China en América Latina ha tenido un impacto significativo en la construcción de la gobernanza regional autónoma. Los autores plantean que la influencia china en este
sentido ha sido contradictoria: por una parte, la creciente presencia económica de China parece haber creado ventajas para que los países de la región reduzcan su dependencia de Estados Unidos; por la otra, China no se inclina a tener preferencias ideológicas o
políticas en términos de quiénes son sus socios en América Latina. Multilateralmente, mantiene relaciones tanto con organizaciones interamericanas como latinoamericanas. Bilateralmente, sus socios estratégicos incluyen gobiernos liberales y antiliberales. De esta forma, existe poca evidencia de que China apoye activamente la lucha por la autonomía política regional.

From Decentralisation of Planning to Peoples Planning - Experiences of the Indian States of Kerala and West Bengal by Charvak, 2000: The Discussion Paper attempts a comparison of the process of decentralisation of planning in the two States that have made significant progress in this area. The study shows that social mobilisation, process of democratisation, mass conscientisation, demand from below, and collective action have been responsible for their success. It also makes a critical review of the evolution of local bodies in these States followed by an analysis of the process, and the new innovative experiments of decentralisation. A detailed account of the Kalliasseri experiment (from Resource Mapping to Peoples Plan Campaign) as well as the KSSP experiment (from Science Popularisation to Local Level Planning) is also given. The study concludes with the observation that instrumentalities such as the total literacy campaign, peoples mobilisation, popular science movements, and mass conscientisation are the necessary conditions for replicating of the Kerala and the West Bengal experience in other States. (http://www.krpcds.org/fellowsh.htm)(http://www.krpcds.org/charvak.pdf. Other related works of Charvak: Background Paper to UNDP, India, 1998, Country Strategy Paper for IDF-1998 and to the UN award winning HDR-2004 of West Bengal).

The traditional dominance of Western state and non-state actors in the governance of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) has frequently led to frictions around questions of sovereignty and authority. Affected states often resent what they perceive as external intervention, while aid agencies routinely accuse governments of denying their populations much-needed help. Against this background, states in the non-Western world are increasingly cooperating regionally to foster their own agency in HADR. To some extent, these developments are compatible with discourses supporting the 'localization' of humanitarian action. However, empirical evidence shows that there is persistent uncertainty about the role of regional mechanisms in HADR governance. Based on a case study of the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre) in Southeast Asia, this paper offers a counterpoint to the pursuit of a governance 'architecture' by arguing that the rise of regional mechanisms fundamentally unsettles the humanitarian order and its liberal underpinnings. Drawing on theories of ordering and narrative legitimation, and based on extensive interviews with policy-makers and stakeholders in the region, the study shows that regional mechanisms have acquired an ambiguous standing in HADR governance. The role of the AHA Centre remains suspended between four competing narratives that correspond to the classical genres of narrative analysis: romance, tragedy, comedy and satire. These accounts do not just offer diverging ideas about the legitimacy of regional HADR mechanisms, but are also bound up with competing perceptions of liberal order. Diverging interests and normative predispositions militate against a convergence of actors' narratives around a common vision of regional HADR governance. The paper thus rejects characterizations of regional HADR as a rationally designed 'architecture' and instead defines it as a deeply political arena where different conceptions of order are asserted, contested and negotiated.

The article examines Nigeria‘s place in international political system in relation to the concept of hegemony. It seeks to assess the scholarly claim of Nigeria as a regional hegemon in Africa. The unclear classification of some countries in the global political system and the function such states could play in promoting peace and stability has not received expected attention of international relation scholars. This does not come as a surprise as the discipline itself is rooted in American and European diplomatic practice. As such, it is necessary to provide tentative, if not permanent, designation for state like Nigeria in the contemporary global system. It is conventional in the history of international relations to ascribe all changes in the global politics to the influence of superpowers or great powers. The role of other actors, most especially in relation to Nigeria, is not properly examined and this has resulted in what can be termed as ―identity crisis‖. In order to provide designation for the role Nigeria plays in global politics, it is important to engage in some sort of empirical analysis. Thus, the article examines the extent to which Nigeria can be designated as regional hegemon in Africa. In conducting this research, process tracing, discourse analysis and latent content analysis are utilized in analyzing documents, interview transcripts, and existing published works.

The basic idea of this paper is to present the French approach to regional geopolitics with some basic information on French geopolitics in general. We shall commence with a few core questions: What is geopolitics? Does it give the possibility of explaining and describing events on regional level with some possibility of prediction? If so, can it be used as an approach for enhancing regional governance?

In the initial part of the article its author presents basic information about Polish special economic zones. Next there are discussed variants of obtaining regional assistance by entrepreneurs investing in SEZs. Particular emphasis is put on detailed analysis related to specific variants as well as conditions indispensable for carrying them out. Theoretical discussion is supported by detailed simulations of different investment variants and potential public assistance related to them. The article is supplemented by information regarding costs of entering and functioning in special economic zones.

This book analyzes the social forces and political coalitions driving regional integration projects in Asia with a focus on ASEAN and Indonesian conglomerates. It asks which social forces, within the domestic political economy of Asian states, are driving governments to seek regional arrangements for economic governance. In particular the book asks how the emergence, reorganization, and expansion of capitalist class have conditioned political support for regional economic integration. By addressing these issues, the book emphasizes that the wellspring of regional economic institution projects stem from the process of capitalist development and the social forces it has unleashed. The book’s aims place the social and class relations that underpin regional projects – rather than the institutions which result from them—at the centre of the analysis of regional integration. The research for this account draws primarily on primary documents from archival and field research conducted by the author—including company documents and in-depth interviews, government reports and policies, and trade publications and data sources, which is supplemented with secondary sources where relevant.

Reviews:

“This book makes a valuable contribution to the literature on regional economic integration and regional economic governance through its case study of the ASEAN Economic Community project using a social relations approach. Faris Al-Fadhat shows, persuasively, that regional economic governance is best understood through the lens of the internationalization of capital, state transformation and social conflict. The work’s originality lies in building on and advancing earlier political economy works on ASEAN economic cooperation and integration that emphasized the importance of domestic social forces in shaping the form and outcomes of regional governance.” (Professor Helen E S Nesadurai, Monash University, Malaysia Campus)

“This book makes an important contribution to leading debates within political economy by explaining how evolving interests under late capitalism are intertwined with the emergence of novel patterns of governance in Southeast Asia. Faris Al-Fadhat’s book demonstrates how well-positioned and increasingly-internationalised fractions of capital had a distinct interest in delinking from their national confines and required a certain institutional architecture to be in place, at multiple levels, for this to happen. I am aware of no contemporary study of Southeast Asia or – more specifically – of Indonesia that has come close to what Al-Fadhat has achieved with this book.” (Associate Professor Toby Carroll, City University of Hong Kong)

“Proposing a new theoretical framework for understanding regional economic governance, this book eschews the problem-solving orientation of liberal and realist perspectives in favour of an approach that emphasizes the social foundations of state behaviour. This framework differs from much other work on the political economy of Southeast Asia—in particular work that has a national focus—by emphasizing the internationalization of capital, the emergence of internationalized fractions of capital, and their attendant effects on the region’s governance. Faris Al-Fadhat provides an original and innovative analysis that makes an important contribution to our understanding of the region’s political economy and the Indonesian state.” (Professor Andrew Rosser, The University of Melbourne, Australia)

On 1 July 2016 the presidents of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru celebrated the 11th Summit of the Pacific Alliance (PA) in Puerto Varas, Chile. The members quite successfully practise a kind of joint “nation-branding” to promote trade and investment and to enhance their international Status and visibility. With its trade liberalisation agenda, the PA differentiates itself from other Latin American regional organisations, such as Mercosur and ALBA, and brings a new dynamic to Latin American economic integration. Moreover, it has revived Mexico as an external actor in the South American regional subsystem. From a geopolitical perspective, the PA strengthens the Pacific shift in South America and economic links with Asia. Furthermore, it offers the US government new opportunities to promote its free trade agenda in Latin America at a time when Washington is showing renewed interest in Latin America.

In 2020, in the new EU strategic horizon1 that is opening at present, the place should matter more than ever when it refers to territories that are envisaged from the Social Innovation paradigm (Moulaert2, Mulgan3 and Morgan4). Nevertheless, how will the suggested H2020 strategy based on Smart City and Communities5, contribute and implement the so-called Social Innovation; facing realistic, economic and politic-driven issues in an increasingly territorially heterogeneous EU current context? This article aims to shed some light on the Critical Social Innovation (CSI) challenges from a constructive position.

The study of regionalism is often characterised as too fragmented, plagued by disagreements over such fundamental matters as its ontological and epistemological premises, which also hinder efforts at substantive comparison of regionalisation processes. In this article it is argued that to overcome these problems, what is required is a more rigorous incorporation of such studies within relevant work in state theory and political geography. The key insight herein is that regionalism should not be studied separately from the state as these are interrelated phenomena. State-making and regionalisation are both manifestations of contested political projects aimed at shaping the territorial, institutional, and/or functional scope of political rule. Furthermore, the article also distils the lines of a mechanismic methodology for comparative regionalism. Its main advantage is in overcoming the implicit benchmarking of regional development we find in other approaches. The framework's utility is then demonstrated through a comparison of regional governance in Asia and Europe.

This article examines the inward–out influence from Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) to extra-regionally based actors, here defined as non-ASEAN stakeholders, in regional cooperation on climate change. The case study on the ASEAN Multi-Sectoral Framework on Climate Change (AFCC) indicates that non-ASEAN stakeholders underwent ‘ASEANization’ when adapting their rhetoric and practices in line with regional normative contexts and interests. In the forestry sector of AFCC where power asymmetry favored non-ASEAN actors, a relatively low level of ASEANization occurred as non-ASEAN stakeholders glossed over complex issues and constructed coherence between local and outside agendas. In the agricultural sector where power asymmetry was not as prevalent, a higher level of ASEANization unfolded where non-ASEAN stakeholders became more flexible on mitigation agendas, given strong regional resistance to go beyond adaptation. Moreover, inward–out influence existed in both sectors as ...

It is widely accepted that sustainable regional development can only be achieved if the concept of sustainability is strongly connected with innovation and improvement of regional governance. This task is extremely important yet demanding as long as several policy levels and areas are interconnected as well as it is crucial to equally reinvigorate the basic pillars of sustainable development, namely economy, society and the environment. Thus, in order to conclude if the basic prerequisites exist and whether there are dynamics, drawbacks as well as opportunities in the regional level, it is important to conduct research concerning the above-mentioned connected policy areas, notions and concepts. This paper aims to analyze the basic outcomes of a large-scale qualitative and quantitative research that was conducted in the region of Crete in Greece, in order to categorize the problems, challenges, opportunities and drawbacks that regional governance, encounter and propose ways-directions in order to overcome them and achieve a socially, economically and environmentally viable future.

Gone are the days when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was the sole business of national leaders, high-level officials, and the intellectual elites of the region. ASEAN has come a long way from being an entirely elitist, ‘top–bottom’ Association to a regional organisation that is more accommodative – albeit slowly – towards a genuinely ‘people-oriented’, ‘people-centred’ and/or ‘people-driven’ regional community. Efforts to democratise ASEAN have, indeed, been a painstakingly long process. This paper, which forms a chapter in the special publication of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ASEAN, is an initial effort to assess the effectiveness of ASEAN–NSAs engagement, as well as existing mechanisms that facilitate interactions between the two parties. Using the outcome of an online survey carried out amongst the region’s NSAs between April and June 2016, this paper argues that the ASEAN–NSAs engagement and the mechanisms that facilitate such interactions are still far from perfect. For ASEAN integration to move ahead effectively, ASEAN–NSAs engagement should not only be enhanced and deepened; they should also move beyond rhetoric to ensure that the benefits of regional integration could be directly felt by normal citizens of the region

This article scrutinizes the everlasting but transforming significance of the concept of region for regional studies and social practice. After tracing the changing meanings of this category the paper highlights one characteristic aspect of the progress of the academic conceptualizations of the region: recurrent iterations of critiques regarding various forms of essentialism and fetishism. The main focus of the paper then moves to the conceptualization of the region and the articulation of ideas about what regions substantially ‘are’ and ‘do’ and what makes the region as a worthy object of attention (scholarly or otherwise). The paper concludes with a discussion about the implications of the perspective on regions developed in the article for the future of regional studies.

El Programa Ciudadanía y Gestión Pública de la Universidad de Los Lagos ha desarrollado el Estudio “Actores y Articulación para la Descentralización en Tres Regiones de Chile”. Su propósito ha sido identificar y analizar las condiciones y la dinámica de los actores (sociales, políticos y estatales) en relación a su capacidad y posibilidades de articulación en pro del desarrollo territorial y la descentralización. Su resultado esperado fue la producción de conocimiento relevante para el impulso de las políticas actuales y futuras en la materia, que suponen el involucramiento y articulación entre actores regionales y nacionales. En el marco de este estudio, se fundamenta y desarrolla en este documento la aplicación del enfoque del Análisis de Redes Sociales (ARS) como instrumento metodológico que contribuya a la consecución de los objetivos propuestos por el estudio.