Strong versus Weak Collaboration: Strengthening Local Governance, Democracy and Accountability in Co-Governance

Since the mid-1990s political and managerial leaders in the UK, Europe and indeed most parts of the world have increasingly promoted collaborative working across government and with other stakeholders. For many ‘wicked issues’, characterised by complexity and requiring action by multiple agencies across legal and administrative boundaries, collaboration amongst a range of government, business and civil society actors is now seen as not only desirable but necessary. . Contemporary co-governance presents new challenges for legitimacy, accountability and democracy. As well as the tensions between co-governance and traditional governing, there are also tensions associated with the autonomy of actors and conflict that cannot be resolved. Indeed, it has been argued that co-governance is “more a strategy for easy summer days than for hard winter nights.” (Røiseland, 2010 p141). This paper critically recent experiences with collaborative planning processes in New Zealand and proposes mechanisms that might enhance legitimacy and democratic accountability.