Drought management: a multi-level governance approach in rural China

Drought has always been a serious problem in many parts of the world, and climate change may further exacerbate this problem. Much literature is available on providing information on drought instruments in rural China covering establishing national drought relief (Zhang et al., 2005) and water scarcity management systems (Qu et al., 2010), promoting water saving and agricultural technology (Huang et al., 2009; Blanke, et al., 2007), analyzing Water Users Association (WUA) (Wang et al., 2010), initiating water pricing measures (Yang et al., 2003; Zhong and Mol, 2010), popularizing agricultural subsidies (Du et al., 2011), and experimenting with policy-oriented microfinance and agricultural insurance (Du, 2003; Zeng and Mu, 2010). But very few has addressed the issues on multi-level governance in this area in general, and in China in particular. This paper focuses on the question: How can an examination of institutional and non-institutional causes of drought and the performance of existing instruments at multiple levels of governance help us to develop more appropriate policy instruments for drought management in China

The horizontal effect of international human rights law:Towards a multi-level governance approach

Veel niet-statelijke actoren kunnen het genot van mensenrechten enorm beïnvloeden. Desondanks hebben niet-statelijke actoren geen directe verplichtingen onder internationale mensenrechtenwetgeving; het internationale juridische kader voor mensenrechten blijft gericht op de staat, met de positieve verplichting om de mensenrechten van individuen te beschermen tegen inmenging van niet-statelijke actoren.Dit boek onderzoekt: ‘Hoe worden schendingen van mensenrechten (mede veroorzaakt) door niet-statelijke actoren behandeld in internationale mensenrechtenwetgeving en -praktijk, en hoe zou een multi-level governance-benadering toegepast kunnen worden om de mensenrechten van individuen beter te beschermen tegen het schadelijk gedrag van niet-statelijke actoren?’ Om dit te bereiken, is in de studie gekozen voor een ‘law and governance-benadering’, die verder kijkt dan alleen juridische oplossingen voor het bewerkstelligen van betere mensenrechtenbescherming. De theoretische, vergelijkende en kritische analyses van verschillende mensenrechtenstelsels op internationaal, regionaal en nationaal niveau bieden een grondig inzicht in de positie van niet-statelijke actoren in internationale mensenrechtenkaders en de uitdagingen die de wettelijke kaders ondervinden bij het beschermen van personen tegen inmenging door niet-statelijke actoren.Deze bevindingen worden gebruikt als basis om te suggereren dat er een multi-level governance-benadering van internationale mensenrechten moet worden gevolgd, waarin juridische en extra-juridische maatregelen worden genomen om niet-statelijke actoren aan te moedigen mensenrechtennormen te volgen. Twee case-studies van de Wereldbank en niet-statelijke gewapende groeperingen worden onderzocht om de huidige tekortkomingen in van mensenrechten bescherming in het juridische kader en in de praktijk te belichten, om aan te geven hoe een multi-level governance-benadering kan worden overwogen en welke soorten acties kunnen worden ondernomen onder een dergelijke benadering.A wide range of non-State actors have an ever-increasing effect on the enjoyment of individuals’ human rights. However, the current international human rights law framework does not place any direct obligations on non-State actors; the responsibility for protecting individuals’ human rights lies in the positive obligations of States, which should regulate and control non-State actors through their domestic legal systems. This book assesses how interferences with human rights caused by non-State actors are dealt with under international human rights law and practice, and how a multi-level governance approach could apply to better protect individuals’ human rights from the harmful conduct of non-State actors. The book provides an extensive comparative analysis of the extent to which international human rights law applies to non-State actors (i.e. the horizontal effect of human rights), examining legislation, jurisprudence and scholarly works at the international, regional and national levels. This analysis demonstrates that in practice three methods are used to apply international human rights standards to non-State actors, but that significant gaps in human rights protection remain. It is suggested that taking a multi-level governance approach to international human rights could fill some of these gaps by providing an inclusive, comprehensive and coordinated governance regime for the protection of international human rights. The two case studies of the World Bank and non-State armed groups are used to show some of the main downfalls of the current international legal framework and to suggest measures that could be taken under a multi-level governance approach to international human rights

The impact of domestic political challenges towards the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union in January 2007

The following research report will look at a series of domestic factors that posed a threat to Bulgaria’s integration into the European Union in January 2007. In this light, this research report will evaluate the efforts that Bulgarian political leaders have taken to meet those existing domestic political challenges and thus assess Bulgaria’s progress towards meeting the political and economic criteria towards EU membership. This research study will be explained by the theoretical tradition of the multi-level governance approach, which assumes the involvement of supranational, national and sub-national actors in the processes of European integration

Un approccio di governance multilivello per le politiche agricole [A multi-level governance approach for agricultural policies]

The world of agriculture which is defined as primary sector is almost unknown to most of the citizens and consumers and to all the scientists who are involved in social sciences. However agriculture provides interesting research questions to analyse in many multidisciplinary fields. Our study is focussed on the public and “semi-public” institutions at local, national and international level. The analysis of the agricultural policies involves the study of complex actors and actions in the context of the relationships between Italy and the European Union, and between the State and the Italian Regions (viz. The federalism reform). Within this institutional framework, agricultural policy plays a crucial role: the CAP (Community Agricultural Policy) for long time represented the main pillar of the European Union policy and matter of conflict between the State and some Regions since 1970. The study of public policies determinants for agriculture requires an appropriate approach. Therefore our choice is to adopt the Multi-Level Governance (MLG) tool. Previous scientific literature (Scharpf, 2002; Hooghe, 2001; Hooghe and Marks, 2001) identified MLG as the most promising research approach to highlight the main features of the agricultural sector. The history of the agricultural policies can be analysed by three levels of analysis: the national, the European and the local ones. Moreover we can consider a global level represented by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Our study adopts the multi-level policy approach for the agricultural sector to underline the main novelties provided by the Political Sciences disciplines and to be a contribution for innovative interdisciplinary research directions.Multi-level governance, agriculture, policy, polity

Multi-level Governance and Security: The Security Sector Reform Process in the Central African Republic

Analysing how the SSR process in CAR has been defined and then implemented, this article puts emphasis on the international interactions between institutional actors who may be geographically/territorially situated at different levels of the policy-making process in different places around the world, thus suggesting ways to grasp multi-actor and multi-sited governance. Therefore, it advocates an approach which consists of expanding the agenda of the traditional multi-level governance approach. The issue at stake here is to capture the interactive institutional dynamic at an international level, thus developing a methodological framework that is likely to seize both the topdown and the bottom-up dynamics of decision-making processes. The first objective is to capture the sets of actors and procedures which drive the process, and to map out the various levels of government at which decisions are made, either the more top-down, or the more bottom-up oriented ones, answering two sets of questions: How is security governance organised? Who decides, and on which matters? Secondly – and more fundamentally – is to capture the intermingling of domestic and international decision-making processes which increasingly overlap and interfere with each other in Southern countries.multilevel governance

Multi-level governance and security: the security sector reform process in the Central African Republic

This paper analyses how the security sector reform (SSR) process in the Central African Republic has been defined and then implemented, putting emphasis on the interactions between national and international actors. Therefore, it advocates an approach which consists of expanding the agenda of the traditional multi-level governance approach and which seeks to seize both the top-down and the bottom-up dynamics of decision-making processes. The first objective is to capture the sets of actors and procedures which drive the reform process, and to map out the various levels of government at which decisions are made. Secondly – and more fundamentally – is to capture the intermingling of domestic and international decision-making processes which increasingly overlap and interfere with each other in Southern countries

Regional Participation in EU Policy-Making - Democratic Effects

The European Union and the discussion on its democratic deficit is the central theme to this thesis. Democracy is traditionally discussed based on the nation-state but here the debate on how democratic legitimacy can be achieved in a globalized society, where political issues transcend borders, is utilized. Regionalization is a central concept in globalization because it is transnational to its nature and sometimes by-passes the nation-state in its influence on EU policy-making. It is investigated whether the lobbying activities of regional offices can be democratically justified and the case of the South Sweden European Office is used for empirical observations. Further, the participation of regional offices suggests helping the democratic legitimacy of the European Union. This is investigated using a Multi-Level Governance approach together with a discussion on lobbying as a means of democratic participation