Civil Society Agency and the Challenges of Multi-level Governance Structures

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel takes a comparative lens to examine how changes in multi-level dynamics affect the strategies and ultimately, the practices of civil society organizations. Centralization and decentralization of governance structures in Canadian provinces and in Wales are redesigning the roles and responsibilities of civil society groups and creating new opportunities for collaboration with the state, but also, disrupting older patterns and creating new expectations. Not only does the openness of the governance structures – that is, their relation to civil society - vary over time, but they also vary across levels. Whether at the local, regional or provincial level, governance structures provide access to the policy process, to state institutions and to potential allies. But at times of relative closure, the elimination of governance structures can constrict the influence of civil society groups, who may have to rely on informal structures to be heard. We explore how, in the context of new opportunities and constraints, civil society organizations are strategically navigating multi-level governance structures in order to position themselves in the policy process. The various papers illustrate that the influence of civil society groups in multi-level governance processes is dependent on agency and organizational characteristics, including the availability of resources and alliances.

In the context of Welsh devolution, increasing layers of governance at the local, regional and national level and a devolved state supportive of civil society groups have created, among policymakers, expectations of co-operative, professional advocacy behavior on the part of civil society groups. Civil society groups are located in a continually shifting dynamic in which they have to manage the tensions that arise from, on the one hand, broad support for the ideas and policies promoted by the state (which have often been derived from civil society itself) while on the other, ongoing challenge to the narrow and managerial implementation of programs.

In the context of Quebec, the elimination of regional governance structures, a centralization of certain governance structures, and the decentralization of others to the municipal level, have disrupted the strategic structuring of civil society organizations. They have had to develop new alliances at the local level, where strategic networking has traditionally been weaker. While the full consequences of these multilevel reforms for the third sector have not yet fully unfolded, practices and networking strategies in response to these changes have so far evolved very differently at the local and provincial levels.

In the context of Manitoba, governance structures at the provincial level provide differential space for organization input, through accountability practices that embody varying degrees of hierarchical control and through cooperation strategies that vary from co-governance to principal-agent arrangements. The third paper explores these changes and the responses to these changes from the sector.

Sub Unit

• Governance, Management, Adaptation and Sustainability of Organizations

Chair

• Rachel Laforest, Queen's University

Individual Presentations

• The Third Sector and Multilevel Governance Reforms: Strategic Action Up and Down the Levels of Governance - Deena White, Université de Montréal

• Manitoba: Locating the Spaces for Policy Influence - Karine Levasseur, University of Manitoba; Sid Frankel, University of Manitoba

• Responding, Resisting and Reworking: The Role and Action of Civil Society Under a Devolved Welsh Government - Christala Sophocleous, Cardiff University -WISERD; Sioned Pearce, Cardiff University

Session Organizer

• Rachel Laforest, Queen's University