Collaboration in Government: Forms and Practices

This book comprehensively explores the many different forms of collaboration in government, both formal and informal, including strategic alliances, intergovernmental networks, and public-private partnerships.

Contemporary US governmental and public organizations are changing to better cope after several decades of pressures to downsize, as well as to deliver new services with declining resources and, in many cases, decaying infrastructure. To meet these challenges, public managers are developing new networks, partnerships, collaborations, alliances and coalitions to deliver government services. Collaboration in Government is designed to help public organizations parse the new and emerging forms of public partnerships and to develop the skills needed to manage them. Each chapter offers examples of how each type has been used in real public organizations, providing the reader with an understanding of how these partnerships may be applied in a variety of contexts, as well as lessons that may be gleaned from the successes (and failures) of these collaborative models.

This book will be of interest to public servants who collaborate in their daily work, as well as students of public administration and public policy.

David E. McNabb is Professor Emeritus at the Pacific Lutheran University School of Business, USA. He has taught undergraduate and graduate business and administration courses for the University of Maryland-University College, the American University in Bulgaria, the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia, and the MPA program at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington.

Carl R. Swenson has 35 years of experience managing cities in Arizona, Illinois, and Washington. He is a Life Member of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and is recognized as a Credentialed City Manager (retired), and a Legacy Leader in professional city and county management.