3
To the extent that these literatures conceive of authority as separated into clearly
distinct levels with specific authorities transferred in holistic allocations between them,
however, they are less useful for understanding emerging patterns of governance. This
paper conceives of multilevel governance in terms more similar to the evocative
metaphor first used 45 years ago by a scholar of American federalism:
The American form of government is often, but erroneously, symbolized by a
three-layer cake. A far more accurate image is the rainbow or marble cake,
characterized by an inseparable mingling of differently colored ingredients, the
colors appearing in vertical and diagonal strands and unexpected whirls. As
colors are mixed in the marble cake, so functions are mixed in the American
federal system (Grodzins 2000:55).
This analogy, which opens up the possibility of authority divided and threaded in untidy
ways through multiple levels, also offers a final useful image of an authority cake whose
precise patterning will depend on just where one slices it. Some parts of the cake may
match the distinct-layer model, others will have only one visible authority level (although
others will be nearby), and still others will be characterized by unexpected whirling.
John Vogler’s suggested approach to multilevel environmental governance fits
well with the marble cake conception of governance and offers useful strategies for
moving from these insights to concrete analysis of (changing) authority allocations
(Vogler 2003). Vogler suggests that scholars return to early understandings of
international regimes to view the different ways that governance institutions –
identifiable by “the collective acceptance of their authority in superintending other
institutions (ibid:30)” – appear at different levels, nested from the local to inter-state.
This means looking at each level for the norms, principles, rules and decision-making
procedures that constitute authority there. In addition, such governance institutions will
be defined by their domain; “what it is that is governed (ibid:31).” In the analysis of
Convention