Interconnected multilevel governance: Regional governments in Europe and beyond

ABSTRACT This article introduces the special issue on the rise of substate regional governments within and beyond Europe. Drawing on the Regioznal Authority Index (RAI) and the Measure of International Authority (MIA), we trace the increase in authority ‘above and below’ the state and argue that it is important to study the differential impacts – as well as the interconnectedness – of the main sub-dimensions of regional (i.e. self-rule and shared rule) and international authority (i.e. delegation and pooling). Turning from the empirical to the conceptual, we also critically examine Multilevel Governance (MLG) as a framework that can be applied to the global south. While MLG helps to illuminate the often non-formal and non-hierarchical nature of territorial politics and the key role of supranational actors in the global south, other factors may limit its applicability including capacity deficits, institutional instability, and conflictual dynamics between levels of government.