Collaborative Governance at Scale: Examining the Regimes, Platforms, and System in the State of Oregon

Abstract

This article takes a first step toward analyzing the characteristics of a cross-policy, state-wide collaborative system. Specifically, using data from the Atlas of Collaboration project, we offer a big-picture analysis of how over 200 externally directed collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) are operationalized in a state-level collaborative system consisting of 13 collaborative platforms operating across five policy areas (economic development, education, health, natural resources, public safety) in Oregon. We focus on three attributes—geographic scope, collaborative size, and collaborative characteristics—aggregated at the system level across CGRs, as well as across collaborative platforms and policy areas. The descriptive findings reveal that collaborative efforts are geographically dispersed across the state, involve thousands of participants representing organizations from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and vary across multiple characteristics, such as organizational form, lead organization, funding model, structural roles, staffing, and extent of face-to-face dialogue. These findings lay the groundwork for future theoretical development and empirical research.

Am I My Brothers’ Keeper? A Critical Review of Mandated Collaboration Research

“…As shown in Table 2, the government's efforts to enforce and organize collaboration among multiple agents and stakeholders have been prominent in the sectors and areas that require continuous maintenance of infrastructure and facilities to provide services to the public, such as public utilities (Iborra et al, 2018; Naveed & Azhar, 2022), water supply (An & Tang, 2023; Cain et al, 2020; Liu & Tan, 2022; Wang et al, 2016; Yoon et al, 2022), and health (Rodriguez et al, 2007; Uster et al, 2022; van Duijn et al, 2022; Willem & Lucidarme, 2014). In addition, collaboration has been mandated in areas that respond to the acute needs of particular groups of beneficiaries.…”

“…However, in the studies reviewed, mandates for collaboration also came from subnational or international levels. Depending on contexts or responses to emerging needs, the state authorities enforce collaboration among other state-level authorities and local authorities (Yoon et al, 2022). Occasionally, local authorities can mandate collaborations among local organizations.…”