#30: Regulations for sharing roles between levels of government

Legal mechanisms are commonly used for promoting multi-level

Governance can be defined as the various institutionalised modes of social coordination to produce and implement collectively binding rules, or to provide collective goods (Börzel & Risse, 2010,p. 114).

Börzel, T. A., & Risse, T. (2010). Governance Without a State: Can It Work? Regulation & Governance, 4(2), 113–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01076.x

relations in water policy. Legislation can be used to help establish frameworks or parameters that build sub-national capacity by allocating competences and resources. This can be accomplished at the central (national) level as well as at the regional level in federal countries.

If it helps to define roles and responsibilities clearly, legislation can overcome problems of duplication and overlap. Assigning tasks, rather than allocating funding, can be a better way of managing problems of resource allocation. It also provides sub-national authorities with an opportunity for “learning by doing”, which can increase their overall capacity in the medium and long term.

In policy areas where multiple stakeholders and issues interact, such as the water domain, interdependencies and complexity are often managed through multilevel

Governance can be defined as the various institutionalised modes of social coordination to produce and implement collectively binding rules, or to provide collective goods (Börzel & Risse, 2010,p. 114).

Börzel, T. A., & Risse, T. (2010). Governance Without a State: Can It Work? Regulation & Governance, 4(2), 113–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01076.x

. A common practice to many countries organized through federal (or similar) models of power distribution is to sign broad contractual arrangements between different levels in order to share roles and rights in the management of policies. Example of these arrangements are seen in Germany (“Joint tasks”), in Italy (“Accordi”), in Canada (“Arrangements”) and in Spain (“Convenios”). The usefulness of these tools lies in the fact that they facilitate the development of inter-level dialogue, lesson learning and impact evaluation.