Multilevel policy enforcement: Innovations in how to administer liberalized global markets

Abstract

Multilevel governance that spans beyond traditional hierarchical steering within states creates new policy enforcement challenges because it involves autonomous administrations of different jurisdictions in a single administrative act. Scrutinizing concrete new coordination tools, the article aims at conceptualizing coordination strategies and instruments to overcome structural problems in multilevel policy execution and trans-boundary administration. The empirical findings on instrument innovation in the European Union highlight the increased strategic promotion of horizontal administrative coordination. The functioning logic and autonomy-preserving character of such vertical coordination makes it a potential solution to functionally equivalent enforcement challenges on the global scale, exemplified by the administrative implementation of international trade agreements.