‘Democratic Agents’ and ‘Agents of Democracy’ in Multilayered Governance

Abstract

In an era of intensified globalisation the changing role of the nation state in the global political and economic order has become an ever more salient concern. The changing role of the state’s responsibilities and capabilities is often subsumed under the terms ‘multilevel’ or ‘multilayered’ governance, which alludes not only to the inclusion of public authorities at several territorial and institutional levels but also to the increased formal and informal influence and participation of non-state and private actors in public regulations. These developments have fuelled debates about the role of regional, international and global institutions, both as formal organisations that establish and enforce rules and as shared sets of norms and expectations that shape interaction between political and economic actors. They have has also fuelled debates about the subjects who are supposed to be the political actors in these institutional structures.