ABSTRACT
Following on the discussions in the previous chapter about the impact of the emergent information society upon the process of European integration, this chapter investigates further into the formation and functioning of networked governance in Europe. In the context of the European information society programme, two transnational policy networks involving a large number of subnational public authorities from many parts of Europe have been chosen as the empirical ground of the analysis. The choice of the policy networks perspective, essentially an actor-based approach, serves the purpose of providing a conceptual framework for the understanding about the interaction between the European institutions, primarily the European Commission, and the alliance of regional and local government authorities.
