Winners and Losers in the Ecology of Games: Network Position, Connectivity, and the Benefits of Collaborative Governance Regimes

Collaborative governance regimes (CGRs) are often viewed as a means to be more inclusive of diverse actors than other forms of governance. However, collaboration can also reinforce pre-existing power and resource dynamics instead of distributing resources and facilitating joint action. This article tests seven hypotheses concerning how the structural position of an actor within a policy network influences said actor's ability to access resources through participation in CGRs. We then test these hypotheses using data generated by a survey of 400 actors within a regional environmental governance network that contains 57 CGRs. Using exponential random graph models (ERGMs) designed to account for network dependencies, we test how various attributes of network structure—in terms of an actor's connections to other actors and to CGRs—influence that actor's ability to access resources through CGR participation. We find that actors who benefit from participation in one CGR are more likely to benefit from participation in other CGRs as well, speaking to the potential for CGRs to further existing imbalances rather than distribute benefits more equitably. Further, CGRs that foster principled engagement (increased face-to-face communication, development of common problem understanding, and awareness of other network actors) are strongly associated with actors' ability to access financial, human, and technical resources through participation. Although the CGRs we study do improve actors' access to network resources, this can occur in ways that further existing inequities in resource access.