Multilevel Governance Case Study

Exam Task of Basic Element of Northern Development SO341S 1

Submitted By:
Pratik Bhatta
Candidate No: 9

What is Multilevel Governance? Using examples from the readings, explain how the multilevel governance affects political autonomy of Inuit peoples in Northern Canada.

Multilevel Governance (MLG) is an approach in political science and public administration theory that was originated from studies on European Integration. The MLG was developed by Political scientists Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks through their studies of European integration in 1992. This approach has continually focused on the challenges created by the distribution of public policy decision-making and the relation between domestic and international levels
• A shift in regional development policy paradigms, with an increasing focus on the mobilization of knowledge assets and the promotion of innovation for endogenous growth, while moving away from a redistribution policy paradigm.
Multilevel Governance and Inuit people in Northern Canada.
The Inuit peoples of the territorial and provincial North have made significant progress in terms of institutionalizing regional self-government and establishing multilevel linkage with other government with Canada’s federal system. MLG structure established by Nunavut Land Claim Agreement and the creation of Nunavut in 1999 represents the unique model of governance between a public government that serves an Inuit population and a nonprofit beneficiary organization representing the Inuit of Nunavut. In addition to Nunavut three other autonomous Inuit regions in Canadian Arctic i.e Nunatsiavut in Northern Labrador, Nunavik in Northern Quebes, and the Inuvialuit Settlement Region are moving towards greater self-government. Although all of Inuit regions have common historical and cultural connections, three regions differentiate from Nunavut because they are politically and administratively
Increasing involvement of non-traditional governance actors in the policy process illustrates that Canada is rapidly moving toward intergovernmental relations between the federal and provincial/ territorial government, diversity and multilevel of governance structure rather than the traditional model of federalism. Involvement of non-state actors in the administration of Inuit regions exemplifies vertical and horizontal dimensions of multilevel system. National and transactional Inuit organizations along with regional bodies interact with horizontal level governance and vertical level governance in search of polices that improves living standard of the inhabitants of their region. Aboriginal land claims organizations are legally established corporations with broad resources and operations. Comprehensive land-claims agreements are mostly handled by these organizations and they execute various activities in their respective regions, including the provision of services and employment. Beyond this, they are accountable to the Inuit beneficiaries of the agreements, not to publicly-elected governments (Wilson & Alcantara,