Multi Level Governance And Federalism Analysis

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Multi-level governance and federalism: a comparison of the models & a discussion on the future of the EU

The purpose of this essay is to compare multi-level governance and federalism models in the sense of European Union and to discuss the future of the European Union based on these models. Firstly, I define what exactly multi-level governance and federalism models represent and what are the similarities and differences. Further on is a discussion about the developments of EU based on these models.

The diffusion of authority has led to the phenonem of multi-level governance (MLG). The authority is not centralized any more, it is decentralized. It means that the formal authority is diffused on different levels – it is dispersed from central
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The purpose was to avoid authoritarian or too centralized government. On the other hand, it's purpose was to overcome the weaknesses of decentralization as well. It can be said, that MLG has a similar institutional purpose – it divides power on differents levels and units of government with the purpose to make cooperation more effective and to optimize the policy-making capacity. Also, both MLG and federalism share the same political function – conflict management. As it is known, in the beginning the multi-level design of the EU was implemented to avoid violent conflicts between states and wars in the future. (Stein, Turkewitsch 2008, 12) Similarily, federalism and MLG both have the purpose to develop effective cooperation and joint action. (Stein, Turkewitsch 2008, …show more content…
The EU has problems with solving major marcoeconomic challenges and because of this, problem-solving capacity may be weakened. (Börzel, Hosli 2003, 196) The supporters of federalism say that EU should move towards a German model of cooperative federalism, where the Council of the EU would develop a second chamber with the Parliament of the EU and EP would get an equal position with the Council in the EU processes. If the composition of the Council is elected through the citizens of Europe, then it can be said it's like a „true government“. (Börzel, Hosli 2003, 192) There are many opponents to this idea, for example French government has said that it's and Germany's attempt to export it's federal state system. (Börzel, Hosli 2003, 193) Also, as it was seen from the comparison from federalism and MLG, federalism might not be the best option for such an heterogeneous territory as the European Union. Maybe MLG offers more flexibility what is needed in the

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