Structuring collaboration in state-centered policy processes: evidence from waste management in Beijing

Abstract

Network governance offers a new approach to policy collaboration. Although this arrangement is increasingly common in liberal democratic societies, public administrators in state-centered systems face the challenge of balancing the instrumental appeal of increased efficiency and the political pressures for preserving government dominance. Drawing on collaboration between NGOs in waste management in Beijing, our analysis applies network statistics to quantify the structural features of collaboration and model inter-organizational partnerships as a function of group attributes. The findings will show us how actors organize collaboration in response to specific constraints of centralized politics.