Polycentricity

Analyses European Union governance from the perspective of polycentric theory, aimed at improvements in achieving individual self-governance.

There has been a rapid expansion of academic interest and publications on polycentricity. In the contemporary world, nearly all governance situations are polycentric, but people are not necessarily used to thinking this way. Governing Complexity provides an updated explanation of the concept of polycentric governance. The editors provide examples of it in contemporary settings involving complex natural resource systems, as well as a critical evaluation of the utility of the concept. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this book makes the case that polycentric governance arrangements exist and it is possible for polycentric arrangements to perform well, persist for long periods, and adapt. Whether they actually function well, persist, or adapt depends on multiple factors that are reviewed and discussed, both theoretically and with examples from actual cases.

World's foremost experts explain how polycentric thinking can enhance societal attempts to govern climate change, for researchers, practitioners, advanced students. This title is also available as Open Access.

Theory and empirical work on the organization of metropolitan government

This work sets out to demonstrate the inadequacy of current legal paradigms in explaining the phenomena of fragmentation through conceptions of modern law. It also addresses the possibility of legal and ethical alternativesand political counterstrategies.

The author argues for the virtues of diversity in cities, organizations, strategies for development, and human discourse in general. The opening chapter develops the vision of Jane Jacobs (the "diva of diversity") for the development of city regions. Many of the later chapters are based on the author's ten years in the World Bank and Senior Advisor and speechwriter for Joseph Stiglitz. Many of the problems in the World Bank's policies were based on a narrow ideological vision that did not tolerate a diversity of pragmatic approaches to the complex questions of economic and social development. Finally, the narrow social-engineering criterion for evaluating social projects is cost-benefit analysis, and the penultimate chapter develops a logical fallacy in the Kaldor-Hicks Principle that is the theoretical basis for cost-benefit analysis.

The Regulation of Euthanasia

This book takes the themes of the jurisprudential movement of legal polycentricity and applies them to international law. It focuses on the civilization of diversity and uncovers the non-universality of law and a pluralism of values. Sinha emphasizes that the proper role of international law is to ensure that in culture-specific matters, such as human rights, the state adheres to the normative ideals of the civilization to which it belongs. "An extensive and well-conceived bibliography... [Sinha] closes the book with a rich vein of resource material for further exploration." -- ASIL Newsletter