Unpacking Luxembourg Governance through Sustainable Development Policy

Luxembourg has an almost two century history of cross-border political economic interdependence, whether that was through the Zollverein and expansion of the railroads during the 19th century, the steel industry that remains largely intact, or the banking and related services sector that dominates the Luxembourgish economy today. Luxembourg has also cultivated deep cross-border connections through its role in the European Union, and establishment of itself as one of the centres for important EU institutions. These structures overlay its otherwise feudal and agricultural legacy. This has led to a political structure that some complain is non-transparent and undemocratic, but that others notice is horizontal, direct, and entails shorter power distances. It has also led to a demos whose membership is defined by the usual legal parameters of nationhood, but at the same time is inter-reliant on cross-border competencies and cycles of de- and reinvestment, as well as personal relations. These paths of governance are easily traced through the mobility of Luxembourg’s sustainable development policies. In so doing, it can be seen that the uncertain governance structure that operates simultaneously multi-scalar, cross-national, and informal, which poses many obstructions to the implementation of environmental policy and renders the normative of sustainable development, that permeates all levels of planning in Luxembourg, postpolitical.