This thesis concentrates on the interplay of structural and societal factors in the development of regional governance though a comparative study of two Canadian (Toronto and Waterloo) and two German (Frankfurt and the Rhein-Neckar) city regions. It was inspired by the tendency, in both scholarship and practice, to turn to formal institutional reform to solve problems of regional coordination. Debates of new regionalism advocate a role for governance solutions, which encourage a broader spectrum of actors to engage in the policy process. However, the emphasis in most jurisdictions has remained on formal, institutionalized structures, imposed by senior levels of government. As a result, the construction and potential for bottom-up and collectively negotiated regional solutions are typically under-explored. This thesis builds a case for intermunicipal cooperation as an alternative approach to regional coordination, uniting the participatory concept of regional governance with functional flexibility of cooperative networks. It analyses what factors affect the emergence of these networks for governance in three areas of regional economic development: regional marketing, cultural policy and regional transportation. It argues that while regional structural, institutional and contextual variables are useful in understanding the emergence of development partnerships, they tend to have different effects in different cases. The thesis formulates and applies an innovative concept – civic capital – to capture the dynamics of building and sustaining regional governance networks. It is both a critique and extension of social capital approaches to regional development. Using the four cases the thesis argues that, where civic capital is high intermunicipal cooperation is more likely regardless of institutional and structural contexts. Consequently, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to both literature on intermunicipal cooperation and broader debates on the dynamics of regional governance, development and social networks.

This thesis concentrates on the interplay of structural and societal factors in the development of regional governance though a comparative study of two Canadian (Toronto and Waterloo) and two German (Frankfurt and the Rhein-Neckar) city regions. It was inspired by the tendency, in both scholarship and practice, to turn to formal institutional reform to solve problems of regional coordination. Debates of new regionalism advocate a role for governance solutions, which encourage a broader spectrum of actors to engage in the policy process. However, the emphasis in most jurisdictions has remained on formal, institutionalized structures, imposed by senior levels of government. As a result, the construction and potential for bottom-up and collectively negotiated regional solutions are typically under-explored. This thesis builds a case for intermunicipal cooperation as an alternative approach to regional coordination, uniting the participatory concept of regional governance with functional flexibility of cooperative networks. It analyses what factors affect the emergence of these networks for governance in three areas of regional economic development: regional marketing, cultural policy and regional transportation. It argues that while regional structural, institutional and contextual variables are useful in understanding the emergence of development partnerships, they tend to have different effects in different cases. The thesis formulates and applies an innovative concept – civic capital – to capture the dynamics of building and sustaining regional governance networks. It is both a critique and extension of social capital approaches to regional development. Using the four cases the thesis argues that, where civic capital is high intermunicipal cooperation is more likely regardless of institutional and structural contexts. Consequently, the thesis makes a theoretical contribution to both literature on intermunicipal cooperation and broader debates on the dynamics of regional governance, development and social networks.

Includes bibliographical references / One of the political and economic responses to globalisation and the associated rise of multilateral trade agreements is the integration of national markets and their governance within regions. As developing economies have become increasingly integrated into the global economy, the harmonisation of policies and standardisation of regulations to create economies of scale and scope, has been one of the primary strategies to improve regional competitiveness. With the global economy underpinned by a dynamic communication infrastructure, African regional economic communities (RECs) have increasingly recognised the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in realising the vision of regional integration, and as a major determinant of national and regional competitiveness. Despite member states' acknowledgement of the need for regional connectivity, many initiatives across Africa aimed at supporting and establishing harmonised ICT policy frameworks have not had the intended outcomes. Strategies for developing seamless regional ICT infrastructures - necessary for the achievement of universal policy objectives of improved access to, and usage of, affordable broadband services now widely demonstrated to drive economic growth - have not been realised. Through a case study of regional policy-making in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the thesis examines the political economy underlying regional processes and structures for the development and the implementation of ICT policy frameworks, as shaped by epistemic communities. A conceptual framework is constructed as a lens through which to assess the role of capacity building as a tool in foreign affairs in the institutional arrangements within SADC countries and ICT policy outcomes in the region. This reveals the wider political, economic and more specific policy and regulatory constraints hampering the development of the information society from a developing region perspective. Applying a hybrid methodology, empirical information was gathered through quantitative secondary data but using qualitative methods to gather the primary evidence for the case. This evidence from multiple sources is examined through a broad political economy framework to contextualise the research problem and develop a rich narrative of regional integration efforts in the area of information communication technologies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Following rigorous and extensive gathering of information from face to face interviews following an exhaustive document analysis, detailed coding of the data and triangulation of findings enable d an analysis of how institutional arrangement s in the region -despite the accepted rationale and logic of market integration -have largely failed to achieve the intended IV ICT policy objectives stated in SADC protocols and declarations despite considerable advances in the formal harmonisation of aspects of ICT policy and regulation.

Over the past several decades, the Washington metropolitan area (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV) has experienced extraordinary levels of growth, facilitating the region's emergence as not only a center of national governance but increasingly a nationally and internationally significant location for population and economic development. Leesburg, Virginia, located approximately forty miles northwest of the downtown core, has historically avoided the sprawling suburbanization characteristic of more proximate locations such as Fairfax and Arlington, instead serving as a distinct economic center for Loudoun County. However, as the Town of Leesburg has grown in both population and landmass over the past approximately fifty years, it has also become increasingly incorporated into an outward-pushing Northern Virginia region, dramatically reducing the once-evident buffer physically and psychologically separating those two entities. The increasing interconnection between Leesburg and the Washington metro region raises questions about the futures of both, with impacts for ongoing conversations regarding urban and regional-scale growth dynamics, governance, and place-making, as well as their intersections with local economic development. This thesis seeks to understand the methods by which Leesburg navigates the challenge to retain a unique and distinctive character while acknowledging the new spatial reality of its connections to the larger region. To better understand this complex situation, we conducted semi-structured interviews with fourteen individuals having strong understanding and expertise regarding economic development, governance, and place making in Leesburg and the rest of the Northern Virginia region. The interviews suggest that Leesburg is becoming a destination for outside visitors and tourists, while also crafting a 'complete community' in which residents can live, work, and enjoy recreational activities; Leesburg increasingly serves a number of distinct purposes for growing and varying audiences. While interesting in itself for observers of the Washington metro region, the Leesburg case also presents relevant implications for the future of large-scale urban and regional growth and change, as well as the continued validity of heritage-based place images given contemporary economic and development imperatives. / Master of Science / The Washington, DC region (Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV) has seen both population growth and physical expansion over the past several decades, making it an increasingly important region within the United States and the world. The Town of Leesburg, Virginia is located about forty miles northwest of Washington, DC, and its distance from the downtown has historically allowed it to remain separate from the suburbanization and sprawl associated with DC's closer-in suburbs. During the past fifty years, however, Leesburg's growth and the outward push of development pressures from more eastern Northern Virginia localities have combined to limit that historical separation. Increasing interconnections between Leesburg and the rest of the DC metro region raise questions about if and how Leesburg will create, sustain, and demonstrate a unique identity moving forward, and what that identity will include. This research involved fourteen interviews with planners, policymakers, and expert observers in Leesburg and the Northern Virginia region to better understand the town's place image and economic development. The results suggest that Leesburg is increasingly becoming a destination for tourists and outside visitors, while also working to foster a community in which residents are able to live, work, and play. The Leesburg case is important because of what it says about region-wide growth, development, and governance, as well as its implications for the maintenance of historically-based place images in the modern world.

This study examines ways in which Australian governments, at national and state level, have developed policy responses to the issue of regional service delivery in the post new public management environment. It argues that new public management has changed many institutional arrangements in Australia and led to new public policy approaches based on those reforms. The study compares the approaches taken by federal and state governments in determining service levels for regional communities. The period under consideration is 1996-2001, coinciding first with the election of new NSW and federal governments and their subsequent re-election. Four cases studies are used to analyse a range of activities designed to provide services at local and regional levels, identifying key indicators of policy successes based on coordinated and integrated regional services combined with technology-based solutions that can be adapted to local community needs. The research draws on new governance theory and principles of effective coordination to propose a new model for determining appropriate service delivery. This model highlights the importance of local participation in decision-making, a regional planning focus, social and environmental sustainability, and the engagement of local communities as key determinants of regional policy success.

<p>Regionalisation out of step - the varying growth of regional cooperation councils</p><p>Traditionally regionalisation is either seen as a bottom up movement or as state reform politics from above. From that perspective, Sweden contains both parts. The state enables regionalisation through legislation, promote it through policies and encourage it in rhetoric’s. But the formation of new regional institutions can only be done by the municipalities themselves. Without their belief in stronger and more self governed regions or their will to act and together build capacity in their region, the regionalisation is halted.</p><p>Sweden is a unitary state and there is no real tradition of strong and self governing regions. In that perspective the regional experiments during the second half of the 1990th can be seen as a rather big step. These experiments inspired other parts of Sweden and in the millennium shift, all counties was interested in forming some kind of selfgoverning regional body. In 2002, when legislation made it possible to build new political regional institutions, these new institutions were formed in seven counties. Since then, yet six counties have formed these new regional bodies. This variation raises several empirical questions. The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the variation in growth of these new regional institutions.</p><p>The analysis follows three different perspectives. The first is a structural one and aims to investigate municipalities need for economic development as a driving force. The second is an institutional perspective where norms are supposed to promote cooperation. The third focus on promoting actors as a force behind the growth of new regional institutions. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods this thesis shows that different kinds of social norms promoting collaboration are the most important factor in explaining the variation in growth of new regional institutions. The analysis also showed that political actors play an important, both in building and maintaining coopera-tive norms, and probably also in bridging the lack of them.</p>

During the last decades a stronger role for the regions has developed in many West European countries. To a significant degree this regionalisation trend has coincided with European integration. The key change in the role of the regional level has been with regard to its status as an agent of regional development. In most West European countries there has been a shift from an approach to regional policy that has focused on redistributive measures from the centre in which the regions play a relatively weak role to a perspective that is sometimes labelled “new regionalism” in which the focus is on the region taking responsibility for its own development. In this new regionalist perspective, which is both descriptive and normative, the region is considered as the appropriate arena for both economic activities and decision-making. In the political systems of the Nordic countries the regional level has traditionally been in a relatively weak position and regional policy has emphasized centralisation and redistributive measures. Not unexpectedly, the pan-European trend toward a stronger role for the region has also found its way to the Nordic countries. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze if and to what extent key actors in three peripheral regions, situated in countries with a strong tradition of redistribution from the centre and a weak role for the regional level, have embraced the new regionalist perspective. The three regions are Troms in Norway, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa in Finland and Västerbotten in Sweden. All are peripherally located with small populations and economies that rely heavily on natural resources. The analysis is based on interviews with regional and local politicians, civil servants, and business representatives. The empirical material is presented in the form of narratives formulated by the regional actors who express their views on regional policy and the role of the region. The results of the study show that regional actors in the three peripheries express similar narratives. To a certain degree actors have embraced the new regionalist perspective in the sense that they see the regional level as an important coordinator for development initiatives and measures. However, the actors’ claims for a stronger regional level must be understood in the context of the unitary state. In this context, the actors’ perspective combines the new regionalist and the centralist redistributive approach, one that can be labelled ‘redistributive regionalism’. The state remains the key actor and is expected to guarantee equal conditions in all parts of the country. The emphasis on strengthening the administrative region is more pronounced in Troms and Västerbotten than in Pohjois-Pohjanmaa, where instead there is a stronger focus on the functional region. Actors in the three regions do not see any contradiction between a strong state and increased regional influence on development issues. In sum, the study finds that the new regionalist perspective has been embraced to a certain extent but that it has been adapted to national characteristics, as well as to the specific conditions in the three regions.

東協憲章對於東南亞許多國家而言，代表著東協整合過程中的重要里程碑。自創立的四十一年來，東協終於產生了一部能使其實質成為「植基於規範和人民導向的」法律主體。 該憲章著實制定規範並賦予東協成員國和該組織法律人格，更重要的是，其標誌了「對於基本自由的尊重、人權的保護以及社會正義的提升」等原則。該憲章更呼籲一人權機構的肇建，俾使每一成員國恪遵憲章的規範。 然而，不幸的是，該憲章未能概括針對未遵守憲章原則規範會員國的制裁條款，且對於將賦予人權機構多少權力以制定規範亦懸而未決。而東協會員國遵行已久的「不干涉會員國內政」原則，更使此情況變得更加模糊難明。因此，本文將針對東協憲章及其所建立的區域治理模式進行分析，並探究東南亞國協區域治理下所面臨的矛盾與難題。 整體而言，新憲章中的各種建議、改革嘗試與區域整合方向儘管極具前瞻性；然而，若始終不願意清晰地面對東協區域內的各種實際問題，區域新憲的法律效力與規範能力，將備受質疑；甚至，亦將無助於區域共同體的實質建構。 關鍵詞：區域治理、東南亞國協、東協憲章 / It is true that for many in South East Asia, the ASEAN Charter is a milestone. For the first time in its 41-year existence, ASEAN has a constitution which can potentially lead it to be "a rule-based and people-oriented" legal entity. It even indeed sets out rules for the ASEAN members and gives the organization legal personality. More importantly, it enshrines the principles of "respect for fundamental freedoms, the promotion and protection of human rights and the promotion of social justice". It also calls for the establishment of a human rights body to ensure that every member state adheres to the Charter's principles. But, unfortunately the Charter fails to include a provision which would authorize sanctions for any member that does not comply with its rules and principles. And it remains unclear how much power will be granted to the human rights body in enforcing the principles. To make matters even more ambiguous, the Charter validates a long-held ASEAN principle that is the root cause of the organization's ineptitude in dealing firmly with its members — "non-interference in the internal affairs of ASEAN member states". As a result, the purpose of study is thus to analyze the ASEAN charter and its mode of regional governance, investigating the problems and contradictions of regional governance under the charter. All in all, though the suggestions, reforms and the orientation of regional integration of the new charter are extremely visionary, if the members are unwilling to face up the substantial problems in ASEAN region, the binding force of the regional new charter will be doubtful and even cannot be conducive to the forming of regional community. Keywords: Regional Governance, ASEAN, ASEAN Charter

Regionalisation out of step - the varying growth of regional cooperation councils Traditionally regionalisation is either seen as a bottom up movement or as state reform politics from above. From that perspective, Sweden contains both parts. The state enables regionalisation through legislation, promote it through policies and encourage it in rhetoric’s. But the formation of new regional institutions can only be done by the municipalities themselves. Without their belief in stronger and more self governed regions or their will to act and together build capacity in their region, the regionalisation is halted. Sweden is a unitary state and there is no real tradition of strong and self governing regions. In that perspective the regional experiments during the second half of the 1990th can be seen as a rather big step. These experiments inspired other parts of Sweden and in the millennium shift, all counties was interested in forming some kind of selfgoverning regional body. In 2002, when legislation made it possible to build new political regional institutions, these new institutions were formed in seven counties. Since then, yet six counties have formed these new regional bodies. This variation raises several empirical questions. The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the variation in growth of these new regional institutions. The analysis follows three different perspectives. The first is a structural one and aims to investigate municipalities need for economic development as a driving force. The second is an institutional perspective where norms are supposed to promote cooperation. The third focus on promoting actors as a force behind the growth of new regional institutions. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods this thesis shows that different kinds of social norms promoting collaboration are the most important factor in explaining the variation in growth of new regional institutions. The analysis also showed that political actors play an important, both in building and maintaining coopera-tive norms, and probably also in bridging the lack of them.

Policy conflict plays an important role in shaping public policy—both as a process and as a product. The policy conflict framework—a theoretical framework, developed by Christopher Weible and Tanya Heikkila in 2017—considers position divergence among policymakers a key characteristic of policy conflict, which can be affected several factors including organizational and network affiliation of policymakers. This dissertation analyzes position divergence among local and regional officials over community sustainability policy, with a focus on affordable housing, which is a major concern of community sustainability. This research examines if, and how, local government officials' engagement with regional governance can play a role in shaping their policy positions. Understanding what influences officials' policy positions is essential in managing conflicts that arise in the making of sustainability policies in general and affordable housing policies, in particular. This study argues that local government officials' engagement with regional governance can lower policy position divergence among them by influencing their policy core beliefs and policy relevant knowledge. This analysis includes testing several hypotheses using data from a state-wide survey of local and regional policymakers. Employing cross-tabulation, multivariate regression, and ordered logit analysis, this study finds that (a) policymakers share a wide range of policy positions on community sustainability policies and (b) for local government officials engaged with regional governance, position divergence on community sustainability is lower than that among those who are not engaged with regional governance. Although position divergence on affordable housing among those engaged with regional governance is generally lower than those who are not engaged with regional governance, this finding is not robust. In some regions and localities, the relationship between position divergence and engagement with regional governance does not hold. Furthermore, this study finds that local government officials' engagement with regional governance is associated with higher levels of policy relevant knowledge, which can influence the policymakers' policy positions. The relationship, if any, between policymakers' core beliefs and their engagement with regional governance is weak and statistically insignificant. This cross-sectional analysis based on limited data suggests that local government officials' policy core beliefs are not related to their engagement with regional governance. However, future studies with better data may yield different results. / Doctor of Philosophy / Policy conflicts can impede the policymaking process; they usually influence and shape policy goals. Metropolitan governance is rife with policy conflicts. Especially in substantive policy areas such as community sustainability and affordable housing, policy conflicts are quite common. Policy conflicts emerge because of policy actors' divergent views, beliefs, priorities, preferences, and aspirations. To ensure a smoother policymaking process, mechanisms to handle conflicts are imperative. Regional governance can offer one such mechanism to handle policy conflicts that arise due to divergent policy positions of local government officials. This dissertation examines policy conflicts focusing on community sustainability policies. Analyzing survey data from Maryland, this study finds that (a) local government officials share a wide range of policy positions on community sustainability policies, (b) local government officials engaged with regional governance take policy positions that are more homogeneous compared to those who are not engaged with regional governance, and (c) officials engaged regional governance tend to have better policy relevant knowledge than others.