Multi-level governance, governance roles and institutional entrepreneurship in public policies

The hypothesis advanced in the paper is that the effectiveness of multi-level governance in achieving given policy-objectives in a given context depends on the performance of the individuals who, being in a boundary position, connect the different levels or spheres of the governance process. In as much as they are able to do so, they are identified as key actors and conceptualized as institutional entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the hypothesis leads to search for the factors that impinge on their capability to actually performing as institutional entrepreneurs. Two sub-hypotheses are advanced arguing that these factors may be related to the individual characteristics the agents need to possess and to the characteristics of the policy-context in which they act. The paper conducts a secondary analysis of three policy-cases belonging to two policy-areas. In the ensuing discussion it is shown that the starting hypothesis is only partially confirmed and a specification of the two sub-hypotheses is offered.