| Increasingly, public managers have been exploring new avenues to resolve complex and seemingly intractable public policy controversies. While a growing body of research has outlined the potential gains that can be realized through the use of alternative consensus-making mechanisms (i.e., outcomes that are more timely, less costly, and more robust), the literature has also cautioned against their use as a legitimate form of public decision-making. The questions that arise are: (1) Why is collaboration initiated in some instances and not in others?; (2) Why does collaboration fail in some cases, yet produce success in others?; and (3) What factors contribute to the success of collaboration?; This study explores the use of several inter-related theories concerning the unpredictable phenomena that come into play when a public problem surfaces as well as the social variables involved in choosing a collaborative form of resolution. The formation and implementation stages of a collaborative process are documented and the host of ecological, social, political and economic forces that impact the ability to produce tangible results are analyzed. These theoretical concepts are then operationalized to produce a Collaborative Pathway model for resolving complex public problems.; Four case studies in different arenas--a group dealing with the emergency listing of the desert tortoise under the federal Endangered Species Act; a group dealing with system-wide reform of the state's child welfare system; a group of industry and environmental stakeholders focusing on water use and management of riparian zones in the rangeland environments; and a group dealing with public service and university social work education--are offered as examples in differing policy contexts.; The findings have relevance for policymakers and policy analysts facing intractable problems. This research contributes to the emerging database on collaborative policy-making and offers an additional, perhaps more complex, analytic model for examining these efforts. This study presents a model to be tested in other research on consensus-based decision-making. |
