This collection highlights the challenges of policy co-ordination at both the national and European level. Several contributions highlight efforts to improve overall performance under the guise of efficiency and economy of legislative outcomes that can generate some of the same problems of accountability, transparency and legitimacy facing governing coalitions. Given the increasing importance of global governance, additional contributions also illustrate how the European Union (EU) exercises leverage through rational calculation and bargaining and ideational approaches, which can generate differential levels of adherence to the regulatory power of the EU, suggesting varied interpretations about the nature and reception of European integration in a wider global context.