Multilevel governance in regional development: a case study of the Intermunicipal Consortium of Frontier

Abstract Given the complexity that social and intergovernmental relations took in the contemporary scene, classical theories of integration are not able to show better understand of the inter-relationship claimed. The theory of multilevel governance presents a new perspective to try to understand the relations on its various levels (governmental and nongovernmental), especially considering the endogenous prism (starting from the local and regional portions). The study aims to analyze the contribution, based on the study of the Intermunicipal Consortium of Frontier (CIF), of multilevel governance to regional development process in border regions. As a result it was found that the multilevel governance contributes to the improvement of intergovernmental relations, in federative context, and serves as a link between intention and realization of regional development from the ground, enabling the democratic participation in the process. It was also found that the Intermunicipal consortium are important tools for coordination and work as a development strategy, not only for the municipalities involved, but also for the entire regional surroundings because they enable to plan, implement and manage shared public policies to solve common experience problems, giving visibility to the region over other governmental levels (state, federal and international).