Multi-level Governance: Problems and Prospects

Governance is the process of making and enforcing decisions by the country's government. Decision-making is one of the most important aspects of administration. Simon asserts that it is the heart of the administration. The past decade has seen substantial democratic backsliding after several decades of gradual expansion of democracy. Even if democracy has not fully died in many countries where it is under threat, the success of populist politicians has undermined liberal forms of democracy. The most common strategies populist parties have employed, besides others, are the centralization of the structure of government. In some countries, governments have limited the number of cabinet portfolios by merging several existing ministries into super ministries. In some countries, the discretionary budgetary decision-making authorities of departmental heads have been curbed whereas in others the autonomy of public agencies has been undermined, and the administrative decision-making, has been personalized and put under the direct control of the populist leader.
The Multilevel Governance (MLG) aimed to comprehend the political processes related to the emergence of supranational institutions to facilitate analysis of decentralized decision-making processes. It is the dispersion of authority within and beyond national states, and decentralization is the shift of authority from the center to regional or local governments within a country.
One of the premises of multi-level governance is that the nation-state is not disappearing, but is witnessing a role transformation in a network of actors, governmental and non-governmental from different territorial levels with which the national authorities interact. Thus, the decision-making process at various levels of government becomes more participatory than hierarchical. National governments and political actors within states (e.g. populist radical right or left-wing parties) contest supra-national institutions such as the EU progressively. In addition, currently there are upheavals with violent overthrows of governments, autocratic erosion of democratic institutions, extensive contestation of established power structures, and widespread disillusionment of parts of the population regarding liberal democratic institutions.