Birds of a Feather Fight Together: Forum Involvement in a Weakly Institutionalized Ecology of Policy Games

• Published in: Policy studies journal 2022-02, Vol.50 (1), p.176-198
• Main Authors: Olivier, Tomás, Berardo, Ramiro
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Argentina; Climate change; Collective action; Cooperation; Cost analysis; Ecology; ecology of games; ecología de juegos; Games; gobernanza del agua; Governance; Institutionalization; Interest groups; Network analysis; Perceptions; Policy making; Population policy; Social network analysis; Social networks; Social organization; Stakeholders; Transaction costs; water governance; Water policy; 博弈生态学; 水治理; 阿根廷
• ISSN: 0190-292X; 1541-0072
• DOI: 10.1111/psj.12418

Policymaking in modern democracies often occurs in polycentric governance systems where decisions are made in multiple, relatively interdependent policy forums. The role and performance of policy forums, however, is likely to be influenced by their broader institutional context. Institutional contexts impose transaction costs that stakeholders must consider when self‐organizing, particularly in weakly institutionalized settings where the transaction costs of collaboration are high. Using social network analysis, we analyze forum participation dynamics in the Lower Valley of the Chubut River in Argentina; a weakly institutionalized setting where water policy problems are increasing in the face of growing population and climate change. Our findings show that forum participants tend to perceive certain types of collective action problems as more salient, and forums tend to attract participants with similar perceptions about cooperation problems (a specific type of collective action problem). These situations may lend forums not only to facilitate the generation of trust among stakeholders with similar perceptions, but also to reproduce certain perceptions about which are the dominant collective action problems, which can deepen conflict in the long run. Our findings shed light on the conditions under which policy stakeholders in weakly institutionalized settings may self‐organize to foster collective action. 摘要 现代民主国家的决策经常出现于多中心治理系统，后者通过多个相对而言互相依赖的政策论坛来完成决策。然而，政策论坛发挥的作用和表现很有可能受其更广的制度背景所影响。制度背景会带来交易成本，这是利益攸关方在进行自组织时必须衡量的，尤其是不健全的制度背景，因为此背景下协作的交易成本高。通过住用社会网络分析，我们研究了关于阿根廷丘布特河低谷地区的论坛参与动态；一个不健全的制度背景，该背景下的水政策问题因人口增长和气候变化而恶化。我们的研究发现表明，论坛参与者往往认为某些类型的集体行动问题更为显著，并且论坛倾向于吸引那些对合作问题（一种集体行动问题）具有相似看法的参与者。这些情况可能通过论坛让具有相似看法的利益攸关方对彼此产生信任，但也会重新催生有关“哪些是主要的集体行动问题”的看法，长期看来这可能加深冲突。我们的研究发现阐明了不健全的制度背景中政策利益攸关方能在哪些条件下通过自组织来产生集体行动。 Resumen La formulación de políticas en las democracias modernas a menudo ocurre en sistemas de gobernanza policéntricos donde las decisiones se toman en foros políticos múltiples y relativamente interdependientes. Sin embargo, es probable que la función y el desempeño de los foros se vean influidos por su contexto institucional más amplio. Los contextos institucionales imponen costos de transacción que las partes interesadas deben considerar cuando se autoorganizan, particularmente en entornos débilmente institucionalizados donde los costos de transacción de la colaboración son altos. Mediante el análisis de redes sociales, analizamos la dinámica de participaci