Exploring authority migration in multilevel architectures: A historical-institutionalist framework

Abstract:

This article develops a framework for analyzing the dynamics of multilevel politics inspired by historical institutionalism. It suggests that this approach has much potential to re-focus an increasingly diversified scholarly landscape, comprising fields like European integration, comparative federalism and regionalization, by promoting a more nuanced understanding of the varieties of institutional dynamics in multilevel architectures. The article seeks to make a threefold contribution. First, it conceptualizes multilevel architectures as an institutional outcome of political restructuring which are subject to different patterns of authority migration over time. Second, it proposes typological criteria to systematically compare such patterns of institutional change by distinguishing their direction, pace and depth. Third, it speculates on the mechanisms that can explain divergent patterns of authority migration. Overall, it is argued that the historical ordering of institutional linkages between territorial authorities leads to differently composed multilevel architectures, which in turn shape the patterns and pathways of authority migration at later points in time. Case studies from North America and Europe illustrate the value of this analytical framework for the comparative investigation of continuity and change in and of multilevel systems.