Introduction: The Collaborative Conundrum in Public Policy

Abstract

Collaboration is a ubiquitous yet contested feature of public policy. The conditions of contemporary governance encourage this ubiquity, namely, the interdependence of policy issues and tiers of governance, the hybridity of policy and service institutions, and the diversity of peoples and publics, each of which implicates collaboration in public policy responses. However, these conditions are not immutable, nor do they inhibit alternative public policy responses. And yet, collaboration persists.This chapter makes the case for a more satisfactory framework for analysing collaboration, one that accounts for its persistent appeal. Integral to this framework is the experience of human actors in collaboration, the potential and limits of human agency, and the role of identity and performance in collaboration.The chapter identifies the ‘collaborative conundrum’ in public policy, encapsulated in three key challenges that highlight the importance of collaboration while emphasising the apparent unsuitability of the prevailing context to facilitate collaboration. These are the challenge of collective action problems, the challenge of ‘publicness’, and the challenge of a public policy in flux.