Recent Publication
Who Benefits from Collaborative Governance? An Empirical Study from the Energy Sector (Ahn and Baldwin 2022)
https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/YPDFRXTNDBSNXAJYJTXD/full?target=10.1080/14719037.2022.2044505
Collaborative governance can positively affect desired policy outcomes, but questions remain about who benefits. This article asks how and to what extent collaborative governance of utility conservation programmes in the U.S. states affects industrial, commercial, and residential ratepayers’ programme benefits. Panel data analysis shows that collaborative processes improve the equitable distribution of energy savings, but inequities persist, particularly for residential ratepayers. Additional qualitative analysis suggests representation in the collaborative process is not a major driver of equitable distribution of benefits, but that over time, collaboration can help participants to look beyond their individual interests and advocate for other stakeholders’ interests.
Collaborative Governance Regimes: Informing Practice through Research (Emerson and Ahn 2022)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359971948_Collaborative_Governance_Regimes_Informing_Practice_through_Research
Cross-sector collaboration takes many forms and works at a variety of scales in multiple policy domains. When issue complexity requires ongoing engagement of interdependent stakeholders in one or more sectors, systems of cross-boundary cooperation are needed to integrate across institutional structures, design and manage participation of diverse actors, and enable joint action and the creation of public value. These open and dynamic collaborative systems have been referred to as collaborative governance regimes. CGRs are systems of public governance where autonomous organizations work together over time to achieve some collective public purpose; they are specifically defined as “a particular mode of, or system for, public decision making in which cross-boundary collaboration represents the prevailing pattern of behavior and activity.” Collaborative governance regimes occur at a variety of scales (local, subnational, national, cross-national, and global) and across different policy domains, from environmental to public health, emergency management, and public education.
This chapter offers a review of research on CGRs and some implications for practice. Following an illustration of the integrative framework for Collaborative Governance Regimes that encompasses CGRs (their system context, formation, collaboration dynamics, and actions), the chapter offers an analysis of CGR research published by a range of social scientists since 2012. Finally, key findings are highlighted, and the chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of this research for practice.