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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

Reflections on
"Shades of
Darkness:
April 13, 2017 Race and
Posted by Mark Lubell Environmental
History"
I have just returned from the 2017 June 10, 2020
meeting of the Midwest Political
CEPB on
Science Association, where David Black Lives
Konisky kindly provided comments on Matter
our paper led by Jack Mewhirter (you June 08,
can find the paper on the MPSA paper 2020
repository, which sadly is gated….), Workshop
which demonstrated the existence of Summary:
“negative institutional externalities” in Governing
the Delta
the context of polycentric governance
Science
institutions. Negative institutional Enterprise
externalities occur when decisions May 18,
made in one policy venue negatively 2020
affect outcomes in other policy
Why
venues. David commented that the
Hamilton
existence of negative institutional Matters for
externalities is a challenge to the Polycentric
Governance
normative assumption that polycentric
December
governance is a superior governance
31, 2019
arrangement to other types of
“monocentric” or centralized Post-doc
approaches—how could this normative Position:
Sea Level
assumption be correct if introducing
Rise
new venues has negative effects on Governance
the system? Networks
November
This criticism reinforced my conviction 06, 2019
that polycentric governance is a

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

concept without a theory. At this point,

I think most policy scientists,
especially those studying theories of
the policy process, agree that
polycentric governance arrangements
are the de facto reality in most policy
subsystems in democratic countries
and I would argue also in authoritative
systems. This recognition is coupled
with the normative assertion that
polycentric institutions are better than
some alternative, for example
centralized, command-and control
regulations. This normative
assumption is rooted in Elinor
Ostrom’s work, although I believe she
would object to the simple caricature
that much of the polycentric literature
has recently exhibited.

If everything is polycentric, and

polycentric is always the “right
approach” to governance, then how
can we compare the effectiveness of
polycentric governance to some other
approach? The literature has lost the
idea that polycentric approaches
should be compared to some other
type of arrangement for example
centralized structures. Alternatively,
instead of reflexively assuming
polycentric systems are “good”, we
should be developing theories about

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

the structure and function of

polycentric systems that aim at
identifying the structural
configurations that work well under
different contexts. I view this latter
goal as more important.

To help develop this argument it is

useful to compare the original and
more contemporary definition of
polycentric governance and realize
that the early ideas about polycentric
governance did offer a particular
hypothesis related to the structure of
urban governance. The original inquiry
into polycentric governance is was V.
Ostrom, Tiebout, and Warren (1961),
“The Organization of Government in
Metropolitan Areas: A Theoretical
Inquiry”, which examined the provision
of public goods in metropolitan
regions with a multiplicity of local
government jurisdictions. They offer
the following definition: “polycentric
connotes many centers of decision-
making which are formally
independent of each other (p. 831).”
Drawing on Tiebout’s ideas about
markets for public goods, one
hypothesis in the 1961 paper is that
polycentric systems are better at
providing public goods than
consolidated systems because citizen-

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

consumers can vote with their feet and

choose to reside in local jurisdictions
that offer their preferred bundle of
public goods and taxes(the so-called
Tiebout hypothesis). A second
hypothesis in the paper is that any
conflict among local units can be
resolved via a “variety of formal and
informal arrangements that may exist
for settling area-wide
problems(p.842).”

It is crucially important to recognize

that V. Ostrom et al. were concerned
about horizontal competition and
cooperation among local governments
in the provision of public goods, rather
than the structure and function of
multi-level systems. The contemporary
literature on polycentric governance
has moved away from the focus on
horizontal competition/cooperation
into the analysis of multi-level systems
and the normative assertion that
“polycentric is good”. This is partly a
reaction to the reality of multi-level
systems that exist to solve collective
action problems that occur at different
scales and emerge over time.
Ostrom’s (2010) article “Polycentric
Systems for Coping with Collective
Action and Global Environmental
Change” is indicative of the

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

contemporary approach, which states

“polycentric systems are characterized
by multiple governing authorities at
differing scales rather than a
monocentric unit(p.552).” The article
goes on to argue that for governing
global problems like climate change,
polycentric approaches are superior or
at least complement overarching
global agreements. This argument
recognizes the importance of climate
change actions being taken at multiple
scales, including local and state
government units. The paper then
goes on to describe the benefits of
polycentrism (e.g.; enhancing learning,
cooperation, and adaptiveness),
examples of multi-level efforts for
climate change (e.g.; state and local
initiatives), and some of the potential
problems (e.g.; inconsistent policies).
She calls for more research on how to
reduce the problems in order to
maximize the benefits.

But this paper, and other papers using

contemporary ideas of polycentric
governance, really fail to offer a strong
theory about the structure and
function of polycentric systems.
Ostrom (2010) notes that polycentric
systems are not a panacea but there is
no theory about “how much” or “what

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

type” of polycentricity might be useful

under different contexts. Which brings
me back to our paper on negative
institutional externalities—how does a
theory of polycentricity account for
their existence? One hypothesis is that
institutional externalities are a problem
that increases the transaction costs of
cooperation across the system and
therefore steps should be taken to
minimize those externalities. Another
hypothesis is that institutional
externalities are an acceptable cost of
polycentric governance because new
policy venues must be created to deal
with new collective action problems or
when existing policy venues are
failing. A third hypothesis is that
institutional externalities exist because
new policy venues serve as a check-
and-balance mechanism, preventing
the actors participating in current
policy venues from monopolizing
collective decisions to the detriment of
excluded actors. Sorting through these
types of hypotheses is the task of
developing theory about the structure
and function of polycentric systems,
and conducting empirical research to
test different ideas.

Of course the hidden and shamelessly

self-promoting agenda of this blog

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Polycentric Governance: A Concept Searching for a Theory | Center for Environmental Policy & Behavior 13/07/20 16)15

post is to argue that a theory of

polycentric systems is beginning to be
developed, name the “ecology of
games framework” that was first
outlined as theory of the policy
process by Lubell (2013). The EGF
builds on the metaphor offered by
sociologist Norton Long, and has been
developed in collaboration with my co-
authors John Scholz, Ramiro Berardo,
and Jack Mewhirter with contributions
by a wide variety of other researchers.
Critics of the EGF have claimed that it
is just a renaming of polycentricism.
My response is that the EGF is a
theory of polycentric governance—we
completely accept the idea of
polycentric governance and try to
provide hypotheses about the
structure and function of complex,
polycentric systems. Institutional
externalities are one hypothesis that
has received some good empirical
support. But there is an entire lifetime
of research that is needed before the
theory will be fully refined and tested
with links to policy outcomes in many
systems. As that research enterprise
evolves, we will hopefully get more
answers about which normative claims
regarding polycentric governance are
supportable.

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