Cross‐Coalition Coordination in Collaborative Environmental Governance Processes

Abstract

Collaborative governance processes seek to engage diverse policy actors in the development and implementation of consensus‐oriented policy and management actions. Whether this is achieved, however, largely depends on the degree to which actors with different beliefs coordinate their actions to achieve common policy goals—a behavior known as cross‐coalition coordination. Drawing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and collaborative governance literatures, this study analyzes cross‐coalition coordination in three collaborative environmental governance processes that seek to manage water in the Colorado River Basin. Through comparative analysis, it highlights the complex relationship among the institutional design of a collaborative governance process, how and why actors choose to engage in cross‐coalition coordination, and the consequent policy outputs they produce. The findings advance policy scholars’ nascent understanding of cross‐coalition coordination and its potential to affect policymaking dynamics.