Polycentricity in the European Union

This book provides new insights on EU governance based on polycentric governance theory, developed by Vincent Ostrom and Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom. It is relevant for scholars and students of EU law and policy, as well as for policy makers and those interested in comparative institutional analysis.

Supranational governance is being challenged by politicians and citizens around the EU as over-centralized and undemocratic. This book is premised on the idea that polycentric governance, developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom, is a fruitful place to start for addressing this challenge. Assessing the presence of, and potential for, polycentric governance within the EU means approaching established principles and practices from a new perspective. While the debate on these issues is rich, longstanding and interdisciplinary, it has proven difficult to sidestep the ''renationalisation/federalisation'' dichotomy. The aim of this volume is not to reject the EU''s institutional structure but provide a different benchmark for the assessment of its functioning. Polycentric theory highlights the importance of multilevel horizontal relationships within the EU - between states, but also between many sub-state actors, all the way down to individuals. This helps us answer the question: how do we achieve self-governance in an interdependent world?