Collaboration between governments, business, the voluntary and community sectors is now central to the way public policy is made, managed and delivered. This book provides the first comprehensive and authoritative account of the theory, policy and practice of collaboration. Written by two leading authorities in the field the book explores the experience of collaboration in regeneration, health and other policy sectors, and assesses the consequences of the emergence of public-private partnerships contrasting the UK experience to that elsewhere in the world.

Collaboration has emerged as a central concept in public policy circles in Australia and a panacea to the complex challenges facing Australia. But is this really the cure-all it seems to be? In this edited collection we present scholarly and practitioner perspectives on the drivers, challenges, prospects and promise of collaboration. The papers, first presented at the 2007 ANZSOG Conference, draw on the extensive experience of the contributors in either trying to enact collaboration, or studying the processes of this phenomenon. Together the collection provides important insights into the potential of collaboration, but also the fiercely stubborn barriers to adopting more collaborative approaches to policy and implementation. The collection includes chapter from public servants, third sector managers, and both Australian and international academics which together make it a stimulating read for those working with or within government. It adds considerably to the debate about how to address current challenges of public policy and provides a significant resource for those interested in the realities of collaborative governance.

Local governments do not stand alone—they find themselves in new relationships not only with state and federal government, but often with a widening spectrum of other public and private organizations as well. The result of this re-forming of local governments calls for new collaborations and managerial responses that occur in addition to governmental and bureaucratic processes-as-usual, bringing locally generated strategies or what the authors call "jurisdiction-based management" into play. Based on an extensive study of 237 cities within five states, Collaborative Public Management provides an in-depth look at how city officials work with other governments and organizations to develop their city economies and what makes these collaborations work. Exploring the more complex nature of collaboration across jurisdictions, governments, and sectors, Agranoff and McGuire illustrate how public managers address complex problems through strategic partnerships, networks, contractual relationships, alliances, committees, coalitions, consortia, and councils as they function together to meet public demands through other government agencies, nonprofit associations, for-profit entities, and many other types of nongovernmental organizations. Beyond the "how" and "why," Collaborative Public Management identifies the importance of different managerial approaches by breaking them down into parts and sequences, and describing the many kinds of collaborative activities and processes that allow local governments to function in new ways to address the most nettlesome public challenges.

The International Group for Policy and Program Evaluation (INTEVAL) serves as a forum for scholars and practitioners of public policy to discuss ideas and developments as a community dedicated to enhancing the contribution of evaluation to government. From the group's studies has emerged a concern with the impact of public management reforms. Collaboration in Public Services examines collaboration in the delivery of public policies and identifies the challenges for policy and program evaluation. Written by a mix of academics, program managers, evaluators, and auditors, this volume explores the forms and challenges of collaboration in different national contexts. Chapter 1 introduces the notion and manifestations of collaboration and discusses emerging issues. Chapter 2 examines partnerships and networks of public service delivery. Chapter 3, drawing on Dutch and British data, reveals the QUANGO as both a collaborative end and means. Chapter 4 analyzes Israel's push to enhance collaboration with voluntary organizations. Chapter 5 examines the Canadian and Danish experiences. Chapter 6 suggests that the creation of markets to improve quality has not been totally successful at least in Nordic countries. Chapter 7 suggests that traditional service values such as trust and parliamentary accountability are challenged by the complexity of collaboration, but, using illustrations from Canada and other OECD countries, argues that results-based governance can increase trust, flexibility, and empowerment. Chapter 8 demonstrates from Dutch and Canadian experiences that auditor responses to collaborative delivery tend to overlook traditional roles as guardians of accountability on behalf of parliaments. Chapter 9 deliberates the efficacy of programs involving multiple partners. Chapter 10 discusses the lessons and challenges of evaluation and collaborative government. Andrew Gray is emeritus professor of public sector management, University of Durham and deputy editor of Public Money and Management. Bill Jenkins is professor of public policy and management at The University of Kent and deputy editor of Public Administration. Frans Leeuw is chief review officer, the Netherlands' Inspectorate for Education and professor of sociology at Utrecht University. John Mayne is a principal with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada.

Collaboration is a ubiquitous yet contested feature of contemporary public policy. This book offers a new account of collaboration’s appeal to human actors drawing on empirical examples across time and space. It provides a novel and comprehensive framework for analysing collaboration, that will be of use to those interested in understanding what happens when human actors collaborate for public purpose.

Many people have always believed that more can be accomplished when government, business, and the general public cooperate with a common goal in mind. Unfortunately it has taken the recent manifestations of two of humankind's oldest scourges—terrorism and disease—to bring the point home. For example, the lack of collaboration among various government agencies prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, has been found to have been of such an egregious nature that a new Homeland Security umbrella department was formed to ensure a new level of cooperation. And in China in early 2003, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was found to have spread far beyond initial reports, a discovery that led in April of that year to the unprecedented step of firing the mayor of Beijing for mishandling the situation. To handle potential future attacks and outbreaks of disease, as well as to maximize the results of collaboration when times are good, it is imperative for citizens, the private sector, and government agencies—especially at the local, regional, and state levels—to learn how, when and why they should share information, knowledge, and resources to get things done. Collaboration is the real challenge facing free democracies in the future, and the success of modern societies will hinge upon our meeting this challenge. The community level is a most promising arena in which to start and to practice many collaborative ventures. The power of citizens as individuals and within groups can be expected to increase dramatically, in line with more involvement of the media and academia. This book presents various examples of successful collaboration and partnership for inspiration and presents a theoretical typology among such closely related concepts as integration, partnership, coooperation, coordination, and association. Current thinking in the field is rather pessimistic about the actual willingness to collaborate among all parties. This book offers a more optimistic (but also realistic) pattern of alliance that is vital for modern societies that carry the heavy burden of citizens' growing demands and needs.

Collaborative working is an established feature of the public, business and third sector environments, but its effectiveness can be hampered by complex structural and personal variants. This original book explores the influence of agency through the role of individual actors in collaborative working processes, known as boundary spanners. It examines the different aspects of the boundary spanner's role and discusses the skills, abilities, and experience that are necessary. It will be of interest to academics, researchers and students interested in this field of study, and provides learning for policy makers and practitioners active in the fields of collaboration.

Analyzing emerging practices of collaboration in planning and public policy to overcome the challenges complexity, fragmentation and uncertainty, the authors present a new theory of collaborative rationality, to help make sense of the new practices. They enquire in detail into how collaborative rationality works, the theories that inform it, and the potential and pitfalls for democracy in the twenty-first century. Representing the authors’ collective experience based upon over thirty years of research and practice, this is insightful reading for students, educators, scholars, and reflective practitioners in the fields of urban planning, public policy, political science and public administration.

Whether the goal is building a local park or developing disaster response models, collaborative governance is changing the way public agencies at the local, regional, and national levels are working with each other and with key partners in the nonprofit and private sectors. While the academic literature has spawned numerous case studies and context- or policy-specific models for collaboration, the growth of these innovative collaborative governance systems has outpaced the scholarship needed to define it. Collaborative Governance Regimes breaks new conceptual and practical ground by presenting an integrative framework for working across boundaries to solve shared problems, a typology for understanding variations among collaborative governance regimes, and an approach for assessing both process and productivity performance. This book draws on diverse literatures and uses rich case illustrations to inform scholars and practitioners about collaborative governance regimes and to provide guidance for designing, managing, and studying such endeavors in the future. Collaborative Governance Regimes will be of special interest to scholars and researchers in public administration, public policy, and political science who want a framework for theory building, yet the book is also accessible enough for students and practitioners.

Today’s public managers not only have to function as leaders within their agencies, they must also establish and coordinate multi-organizational networks of other public agencies, private contractors, and the public. This important transformation has been the subject of an explosion of research in recent years. The Collaborative Public Manager brings together original contributions by some of today’s top public management and public policy scholars who address cutting-edge issues that affect government managers worldwide. State-of-the-art empirical research reveals why and how public managers collaborate and how they motivate others to do the same. Examining tough issues such as organizational design and performance, resource sharing, and contracting, the contributors draw lessons from real-life situations as they provide tools to meet the challenges of managing conflict within interorganizational, interpersonal networks. This book pushes scholars, students, and professionals to rethink what they know about collaborative public management—and to strive harder to achieve its full potential.