Multi level governance

Multi level governance is the new forward thinking that is on the tip of all governments tongues. It ultimately is what many governments in the 21st century are aiming to achieve. What it would mean for governments is that decisions and implementation are carried out by other bodies whilst the government manages to define the vision and the steer the direction of all these actors in a concrete way.
The beauty of multi level governance will mean that the hierarchical, elite system in play for centuries will be disrupted instead allocating power equally between institutions at the very top and the very bottom. In this world citizens have access to the highest levels of the international arena where disputes can be taken to international courts whilst they can also be resolved at a local county court. This is just one example of how far reaching multi level governance can be. This is of growing importance as the EU grows in power and Britains integration into the EU remains an opportunity dependent on the different levels of governance that will be at play.
The conservatives took the first steps for Britain with the Single European Act (SEA) in 1986 creating the single market, an area without frontiers for movement of trade, civilians, services and capital. The Act also included improved general economic and monetary commitments tied with the EU. The Maastricht treaty took this even further in provisions for greater cooperation with home affairs and justice along with common foreign and security policies. However even though the Conservatives began this trend they stopped short of full scale implementation. Thatcher was still an advocate of centralising power and taking power away from the smaller local governments, calibrating the largest ever rehaul of the civil service in favour of her vision for government.
Labours vision in succession of the Conservatives took this step even further. Labour kept all the local quangos and the civil servants restructing along with privitisation. Yet in terms of decentralisation they did devolve assemeblies to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. One of Blair's first term key successes was managing to assemble a structure for governance in Ireland, helping to bring peace and political progress to the precarious and grumbling country. The main focus for Blair was to restore accountability to the system and provide ellected local authorities with the legitamacy they needed to undertake the role of community leaders in a complex multi governed world. As part of this Blair also brought in the Greater London Assembly, which Boris Johnson can happily testify to.
The problem with the multi faceted system that we live in can be the undue incoherence and overwhelming levels of information. This risks misunderstandings and dilution of policies especially as it trickles down the beureaucratic tree. Misallocation of funds is also a predicament as they arrive from the IMF as an example and end up in the hands of quangos with their own interests and political motivations.
Thirty years ago governance was much more simple. However Britian has joined forces with Europe along with corporate activities, voluntary associations and other societal actors in order to mobolize resources. This means that all of these actors need to be managed and carefully, via a system of 'multi level governance', however what does this actually mean and how effective will this be?
Ultimately a more 'holistic' approach has been adopted looking at appeasing the general society through bargaining and negotiating, rather than submission. This new wave is managing to challenge existing governmental systems particularly the 'Westminster' or 'Whitehall' model which was run according to the state being unitary and sovereignity being automatically granted.
This has changed as Britain has decided to hear the voices of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, as they begin to voice their interests more vociferously. This is a benign movement away from Britain being a unitary state with power centralised to 'Whitehall'. Nowadays the different countries within Britain are finding that more power is being devolved to them and this is inherent within policy since New Labour came into power in 1997.
Governance will not be about the end of politics but instead the new way of playing out politics in the emerging political arena of the 21st century where conflict and compliance are played out with much more intertwined interests and desires for human rights and stable economic conditions. The ideal goal of governance is to develop a new reference point for reality from which people can mould new frameworks and new successes.