| Summary: | This article aims at contributing to governance conceptualization and its application to case study analyses. Two of the challenges which the theoretical and empirical work in the article addresses concern the facilitation of comparability of diverse governance cases and a specification of several key mechanisms of governance formation and reform. A proposed model of the 'architecture of governance systems' – their major components and inter-linkages – contributes, as argued and illustrated here, to greater comparability among cases and with the possibility of improved accumulation of knowledge about governance systems. These tools are applied to empirical cases of governance structure and their functioning and reformation. Baltic fisheries, a complex, multi-level case of commons governance, is considered in some detail in order to illustrate and elaborate the key factors of power, knowledge, and conflict in the functioning and transformation of governance systems. In addition to the Baltic fisheries case, we consider briefly for comparative purposes chemicals and gender relations as additional areas of EU governance. The paper is divided into four sections. Section I introduces the basic conceptualization and tools of analysis. Section II presents the case of Baltic fisheries. Section III elaborates the key concepts and tools presented in Section I, in particular considering additional cases of the functioning of governance systems. Section IV is a brief conclusion.
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