Shared Positions on Divisive Beliefs Explain Interorganizational Collaboration: Evidence from Climate Change Policy Subsystems in 11 Countries

Karimo, Aasa; Wagner, Paul M; Delicado, Ana; Goodman, James; Gronow, Antti; Lahsen, Myanna; Lin, Tze-Luen; Schneider, Volker; Satoh, Keiichi; Schmidt, Luisa; Yun, Sun-Jin; Yl�-Anttila, Tuomas

Abstract

Collaboration between public administration organizations and various stakeholders is often prescribed as a potential solution to the current complex problems of governance, such as climate change. According to the Advocacy Coalition Framework, shared beliefs are one of the most important drivers of collaboration. However, studies investigating the role of beliefs in collaboration show mixed results. Some argue that similarity of general normative and empirical policy beliefs elicits collaboration, while others focus on beliefs concerning policy instruments. Proposing a new divisive beliefs hypothesis, we suggest that agreeing on those beliefs over which there is substantial disagreement in the policy subsystem is what matters for collaboration. Testing our hypotheses using policy network analysis and data on climate policy subsystems in 11 countries (Australia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Portugal, Sweden, and Taiwan), we find belief similarity to be a stronger predictor of collaboration when the focus is divisive beliefs rather than normative and empirical policy beliefs or beliefs concerning policy instruments. This knowledge can be useful for managing collaborative governance networks because it helps to identify potential competing coalitions and to broker compromises between them.

Citation

Karimo, A., Wagner, P. M., Delicado, A., Goodman, J., Gronow, A., Lahsen, M., …Ylä-Anttila, T. (2023). Shared Positions on Divisive Beliefs Explain Interorganizational Collaboration: Evidence from Climate Change Policy Subsystems in 11 Countries. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 33(3), 421-433. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac031

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Jul 21, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023-07
• Deposit Date: Sep 26, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 15, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
• Print ISSN: 1053-1858
• Electronic ISSN: 1477-9803
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 421-433
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac031
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2924067