Transgovernmentalism

The notion of transgovernmentalism refers to the process of internationalization of policy making through the interaction of government agencies or government officials. The concept challenges statecentric approaches to international relations and, in particular, the assumption of states as unitary actors. Transgovernmentalism also places emphasis on the interaction between international and domestic policy making and the blurring of boundaries between the two levels.

While the concept is linked to debates on transnational relations and actors, its starting point is the direct interaction among single units and agencies or governmental officials (e.g., members of the higher civil service and political leaders, rather than the interaction with or among nongovernmental actors). Transgovernmentalism has been informed by analysis of intergovernmental policy coordination in the context of international regimes as well as in the context of the European Union (EU). The notion is also discussed in the context of world politics more widely and the question of a new world order.

The debate on transgovernmentalism has been shaped by the writings of Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye from the 1970s. They define transgovernmental relations as direct interactions among different governments' subunits and point out that these subunits are not directly controlled by the center of government. The differentiation between two modes of transgovernmentalism, transnational policy coordination and transnational coalition building, is still reflected in more recent writing in that context. While functional interdependence makes transnational policy coordination necessary, this policy coordination establishes channels of communication and facilitates frequent interaction among governmental units from different countries. These interactions, in turn, cause changes in the attitudes and beliefs of governmental officials and thereby lead eventually to the emergence of transnational networks. Common worldviews and interests, as well as professional orientations, sustain the relationship between individuals across national boundaries. In that context, international organizations and their bureaucratic backbones (like secretariats) play an important role in providing access points toward transnational channels of communication.

Transnational networks could also be the outcome of strategic behavior of individuals rather than emerging from continuous interaction. This is captured in the notion of “transnational coalition building,” which refers to the strategy of governmental units that use actors from other governments as allies against opposition within the domestic arena. More recently, that argument has been expanded to the strategic choice of an institutional arena that is possibly more open than others for a specific policy initiative (venue shopping).

While the interests of Keohane and Nye were mainly directed toward the influence of transgovernmentalism on the development of interstate cooperation, Anne-Marie Slaughter placed the notion of transgovernmental networks at the center of her concept of a new world order in the late 1990s. She argues that most reasoning about the international order was unrealistic in that it required centralized rule making and hierarchic institutions spanning the whole world. She also denies that nonstate actors could develop a transnational world order and substitute state power. However, the web between functionally distinct parts of the state (including not only administrative agencies, but also courts and even parliaments) could constitute a new transgovernmental order.

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