Despite twenty-five years of membership in the European Union (EU), academic contributionsfor understanding a possible impact of the EU membership on Swedish municipalities hasshined with their absence. Thus, municipalities make up a largely un-explored character in thefield concerned with European integrational aspects. The issue of how the EU affects a memberstate has hitherto been biased to the usage of a top-down lens and has mainly focused oncomprehending larger institutional bodies. This thesis takes its point of departure from thisdelivered criticism, by contributing to the burgeoning literature on how municipalities act andinteract with higher tiers of government in a multi-level governance system. Assessing the caseof four municipalities residing in northern Sweden this thesis offers insights into howmunicipalities interact using intergovernmental relations with the Swedish national governmentand the EU through a creation and implementation of strategies for advocating territorialinterests. By conducting interviews, the thesis confirms that a wide array of intergovernmentalrelations or interactions are used in order for promoting ‘northern positions’ to both a nationaland European level. A pattern shows that advocacy actions from subnational actors are directedvertically, while at the same time coordinated horizontally. Individual actors, mainly electedlocal politicians, plays a rather central part in these actions, by using a party channel foradvocating local views. In conclusion, this thesis reveal amongst all that the EU has in factimpacted municipalities in northern Sweden by creating incentives for them to advocate theirinterests towards the central government.

The aim of this thesis is to provide a deeper understanding of the construction of identity in relation to European integration and to discover how identities are constructed in relation to each other. The paper will therefore answer the question: ‘How can we understand the identity constructions in Wales during the political changes of Brexit, and what do these constructions reveal about the effects of European integration’. The EU advocates being ‘united in diversity’. This statement provides direction for this research, as it allows for a discussion of how various identities relate to each other. The paper will look into the political discourse of the Welsh government by applying Critical Discourse Analysis. By examining the speeches of Assembly Members, an analysis can be given of the construction of identity in the political debate in Wales. Consequently, it will look at the effects of European integration on identity construction. The analysed discourse illustrates the importance of national identity in the debate and the rather weak constructions of European identity. It also depicts that even though European integration is an important topic in the political discourse, its influence on identity construction is not strongly established. There are multiple actors that exert influence in Wales. Though, the most important is the interaction between Wales and England. The dividing factor in regards of identity construction is thus not in relation to the EU, but in relation to governance in the UK. The framework of multi-level governance in the UK is therefore an important factor in the construction of identity. The analysis indicates that even though European integration is fundamental for the development of regions such as Wales, national heritage and culture are still the most predominant in the construction of identity.

More and more attention is paid in the academic debate to the issue of sub-state entities, represented by regional governments, as partially independent actors of international politics. This phenomenon, referred to as paradiplomacy, is particularly visible in the European Union, where since 1980s regional governments have been mobilising to gain direct influence on the shape of European politics. A regional government that acts as an agent of European politics may or may not be actively supported by its central government. This thesis tries to investigate the relationship between the direct representations of the Visegrád Group regions in Brussels and their respective national Permanent Representations. In the first chapter, I discuss the theoretical issues related to regional mobilisation in Brussels by referring to the work of researchers who deal with multi- level governance in the context of the European Union. In the second chapter, I present and justify the choice of research design, case studies, and semi-structured interviews as the main source of obtaining data necessary to answer the research question. In the third chapter, I included the analysis of the obtained information, and in the fourth chapter, the conclusions drawn from it. This research shows that direct regional...

The introduction of the European Union (EU) macro-regional strategies (MRS) in the latter half of the 2000s was a significant step in the process of transformation of EU governance system. EU MRSs act as a new form of comprehensive governance framework for multi-objective and cross-sectoral cooperation in geographically defined macro-regions. This thesis examines the case of the Baltic Sea Region in order to evaluate a potential of this new governance instrument to transform cooperation arrangements in the region. In order to shed light on the strategy’s patterns and dynamics, the present study utilizes a qualitative methodological approach that uses document analysis based on a comprehensive analytical framework. The analytical framework incorporates the theoretical perspectives of multi-level and experimentalist governance, as well as the theory of differentiated integration. The main findings of this study suggest that the inception of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) in 2009 has offered an innovative and dynamic framework for cooperation that enabled a wider representation and more active participation of local and regional actors. This allowed for a more coherent and coordinated policymaking, facilitated a more responsive and transparent cooperation system in the region, as well as fostered transnational cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region by ensuring a wider engagement of non-EU countries.

Research on sustainability, multi-level governance, and public transport has shown increasingattention to how the purpose of the transport system is framed and has generally advocatedshifting the focus of transport planning and policy from physical infrastructure to mobility andaccessibility on the local scale. Using multi-level governance theory, this research examines theimpact of multi-level governance on potential problems of public transport by analysing theinteraction between public transport's formal/informal actors, policy-making arrangements, andexisting institutional structures. The article argues that, starting from the local scale, solutionscan be proposed with multi-level governance to the governance problems in a city and regionaltransport unit in Sweden. It also explains that the role of the local scale in multi-level governanceneeds to be defended, and how planning decisions from the local scale shape the economic andsocial framework of public transport. Due to the limited literature on multi-level governance andpublic transport, it is also intended to contribute to literature and research in this field.Thus, understanding and managing a range of multi-level governance issues involves solving anddiscussing many transport issues from a multi-level governance framework that requires workingwith and/or seeking assistance from, public, private, civil society or others. The findings alsopoint to the benefits of this approach, although some challenges remain. Multi-level and multiactor governance is known to apply to local challenges, including a municipal-scale meetings tounderstand Sweden's public transport dynamics and approaches. The findings show that localauthorities use multi-level governance theories and positively affect public transport socially andeconomically

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A travers l'observation des services publics de base, cette thèse s'intéresse à la réorganisation des pouvoirs politiques et techniques consécutive à la mise en place de la réforme de décentralisation. En Inde, cette question a déjà fait l'objet de plusieurs études de cas en zone rurales et dans les villes métropolitaines. L'objet de ce travail est de compléter ce corpus en le replaçant dans le contexte différencié des petites villes indiennes. Celles-ci ont jusqu'ici peu interpellé l'attention des chercheurs et des planificateurs. Ce désintérêt traduit un biais dans la manière de penser l'urbanisation indienne où la « ville » désigne avant tout des agglomérations métropolitaines, considérées comme les moteurs de la croissance économique, aux dépens du reste de l'Inde urbaine. Pourtant, une part importante de la population urbaine vit aujourd'hui dans ce type de villes et est donc tout autant concernée par les changements introduits par les nouvelles politiques urbaines issues de la décentralisation. Dans le cadre de ce travail doctoral, une enquête a été menée à travers quatre petites villes de 20000 habitants sélectionnées à l'est de l'Uttar Pradesh en interrogeant les hommes politiques, les ingénieurs et les habitants. La recherche empirique s'est appliquée à analyser la formation des gouvernements locaux avec une perspective multi-niveaux pour comprendre les transformations institutionnelles depuis la réforme. Les résultats de l'étude permettent d'obtenir une image du processus d'émergence des municipalités dans les petites villes / This Ph.D research aims to analyse the new political and technical arrangements in small towns governance, especially regarding the management of publics basic services, since decentralisation reforms in India. Various research projects have dealt with these subjects in rural areas and large metropolises but little attention has been paid to the same issues in smaller urban settlements. Yet more than half of the urban population in India lives in these towns. There has been a bias within Indian urban studies against small towns, because the idea of “urban” has always designated large urban settlements. This scientific disinterest translates into a more characteristic way of thinking about the urbanization process and resource allocation in India where big cities have been glorified as part of “Shining India”, while at the same time forgetting the rest of urban India. For this thesis, a sample survey has been conducted in a few selected towns comprising around 20,000 inhabitants in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The fieldwork has focused on urban local bodies and interviews has been conducted conducted with political leaders, government officials appointed at different levels (local, regional and state) and other actors such as engineers. Other interviews have been conducted with citizens as users to verify the information collected on effective service delivery and to understand what their relationships are with elected public servants and service providers. The results of the study gives a good view of the institutional building process consequent to decentralisation reform and the municipality emergence in small towns

Sustainable development has become in last two decades a phenomenon. Principles of this concept are implemented into most of political development documents at the international, national, regional and local level. Outcomes of sustainable development assessment are often used as basis of measures which influence the process of spatial development. However there exist many approaches how to assess the sustainable development, so far it haven`t been achieved a general consensus how to do it. The aim of this thesis is a critical interpretation of literature considering sustainable development and analysis of implementation of sustainable development assessment in municipalities of Czech Republic. Method of this analysis is desk research of documents called analysis of spatial sustainable development (rozbor udržitelného rozvoje území), which the municipalities have to (by law) make out and semi-standardized interview with representatives of local and regional authorities

Depuis l'avènement de la démocratie en Espagne, les Communautés autonomes catalane et basque ont été gouvernées par des forces politiques fortement investies dans l'élargissement de leur autogouvernement. Dans ce travail de thèse, nous nous intéressons aux politiques d'intégration des immigrés extracommunautaires, pendant la période 2000-2009, politiques gérées par les CCAA et enchâssées dans la question historiquement récente du fait migratoire en Espagne. Pour l'analyse comparée de ces politiques publiques mises en place par des CCAA, il est indispensable de pointer, d'une part, une gouvernance multi-niveaux (UE, État et local), et, d'autre part, de tenir compte des multiples facettes des politiques se prétendant « globales » et distinctes, puisque cette intégration agirait sur les domaines social, linguistique et national dans chacune des CCAA. Comment se déploient les stratégies d'appropriation de ces politiques dans ces deux territoires infranationaux aux pressions migratoires inégales ? Ces stratégies, induisent-elles des modèles originaux d'intégration ? Ces prétentions d'originalité dépendront du type de rapports - de concurrence ou de collaboration - avec l'État, mais, également, des possibilités, au sein de chacune des CCAA, de rassembler l'ensemble des acteurs politiques et sociaux autour d'un modèle singulier prenant en compte leurs particularismes identitaires. Au vrai, la Catalogne et le Pays Basque incarnent deux territoires aux contextes politiques et culturels spécifiques à leur nationalisme périphérique qui, même s'ils induisent dans les deux cas des mouvements centrifuges, relèvent de deux manières distinctes de se rapporter politiquement à l'État. / Ever since the democratic transition in Spain, the Autonomous Communities of Catalonia and the Basque Country have been governed by political forces strongly committed to the expansion of self-government. This dissertation looks at policies for integrating immigrants from outside the European Union put in place by these two Autonomous Communities (AC's) during the decade of the 2000s, placing this in the broader context of the recent emergence of Spain as a host country for significant inward migration. In order to carry out a comparative analysis of the policies put in place by the two AC's it is necessary to take into account two additional factors. The first is the multi-level nature of the policy, involving as it does actors ranging from the European Union to the local level. The second is the multiple aspects of an all-inclusive policy, that seeks a distinct path to complete integration of immigrants on the national but also the social and linguistic levels in each AC. What strategies of appropriation of these policies have been put in place in the two AC's, which differ from each other in the extent of migratory pressure? Have these strategies led to innovative models of integration? The dissertation concludes that the potential for innovation depends on the type of relationship competition or cooperation between AC and the central government, but also on the possibilities within each AC for bringing together actors around a singular model taking into consideration their respective unique identities. Catalonia and the Basque Country are two territories whose political and cultural context is closely tied to their particular dynamic of peripheral nationalism. While leading in both cases to a centrifugal tendency with respect to national authority, these dynamics nevertheless represent two distinct ways of relating politically to the State. / Desde la llegada de la democracia en España, las Comunidades Autónomas catalana y vasca han sido gobernadas por unos partidos extraordinariamente comprometidos en el proceso de construcción de su propio autogobierno. La presente tesis tiene por objeto el estudio y análisis de las políticas de integración de los inmigrantes extracomunitarios gestionadas por las CCAA entre los años 2000 y 2009, políticas que se enmarcan en el nuevo contexto de inmigración en España. Para el análisis comparado de las políticas públicas desplegadas por las CCAA será indispensable referirse a un marco general de gobernanza multi-nivel (europeo, estatal y local) y además atender a las múltiples facetas de políticas que pretenden ser “globales” y diferenciadas, puesto que esta integración abarcaría las dimensiones social, lingüística y nacional en la respectiva Comunidad Autónoma. ¿ Cómo se manifiestan estas estrategias de asunción - apropiación de competencias en estos dos territorios de flujos migratorios de desigual naturaleza e intensidad ?, ¿ Se generan finalmente en cada una de las comunidades catalana y vasca modelos realmente originales de integración ? La viabilidad de esa pretendida originalidad dependerá no sólo del tipo de relaciones - decompetencia y conflicto o de colaboración, según los casos - mantenidas con el Estado, sino también, y en gran medida, de la posibilidad de que en el seno de cada una de las CCAA puedan materializarse suficientes acuerdos entre los actores políticos y sociales en torno a un modelo deintegración singular que incorpore en el diseño de sus políticas sus particularismos identitarios. Ciertamente, Cataluña y el País Vasco, siendo la expresión más perfilada y potente de los nacionalismos periféricos españoles, provocarán en la gestión de este nuevo cuadro dinámicas y movimientos de naturaleza centrífuga, afirmándose también dos nuevos modos, distintos y peculiares, de relacionarse políticamente con el Estado

Cette étude est consacrée à la dynamique des relations intergouvernementales en Afrique du Sud et aux interactions des acteurs participant de manière directe ou indirecte à la définition et à la mise en oeuvre de la politique de sécurité alimentaire. Par l'analyse de l'approche de politiques publiques, nous exemplifions ces dynamiques sur la base d'une étude comparative des politiques de sécurité alimentaire entre les provinces du Limpopo et du KwaZulu-Natal, en Afrique du Sud. Nous rendons compte des allers-retours qui se produisent entre les différents niveaux du gouvernement sud-africain mais aussi entre les divers acteurs et les instances internationales et nationales en ce qui concerne la conception et la mise en oeuvre des politiques. À l'aide de la métaphore de l'« effet prismatique », notre analyse identifie les divergences qui se dégagent de ces allers-retours entre acteurs et souligne que leurs perceptions de l'enjeu alimentaire sont influencées et façonnées par un ensemble de circonstances sociales, économiques et politiques qui vont « envoyer » une ou plusieurs interprétations de ce problème. Ceci conduit à un effet de dispersion de l'idée de départ de « sécurité alimentaire » par rapport aux représentations et aux référentiels que chaque acteur se fait à ce sujet, complexifiant ainsi la définition et la mise en oeuvre des politiques publiques. Cette étude, loin deformuler des conclusions catégoriques, soulève des questionnements nouveaux. Elle révèle notamment trois difficultés que l'approche des politiques publiques et la dynamique multi-level governance posent aussi bien au niveau théorique qu'au niveau de la praxis : (1) l'opposition des propositions empiriques ; (2) l'opposition entre les instances du gouvernement local et celles du gouvernement national dans l'identification de problèmes publiques ; et (3) le questionnement sur le rôle de l'approche multi-level governance dans la définition et la mise en oeuvre de politiques publiques. Ceci nous invite à explorer de nouveaux chemins pour aborder les faits sociaux et tracer les contours d'un ordre social et politique encore incertain.