Polycentric Governance

Polycentric governance represents a significant strand in environmental social science research. Polycentric systems are those in which authority is dispersed to separately constituted bodies with overlapping jurisdictions that do not stand in a hierarchical relationship to each other. Over the course of six decades, polycentric thinking has emerged as a popular way to describe, explain, and inform the governance of many policy problems, including multiple environmental ones. The first half of this chapter outlines some of the defining features of polycentric thinking and identifies some of its core propositions in relation to governance, and specifically multi-level governance. Polycentric governance is shown to be a flexible, meso-level concept around which other concepts and theories can be brought together in a productive dialogue. The second half of the chapter examines the extent to which polycentric governance thinking can account for the emerging patterns and dynamics of climate governance, especially the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. It subsequently details the potential value of adopting a polycentric approach, identifies some of its blind spots, and then concludes by discussing new priorities for research and practice.