Directed by Dr. Shui Yan Tang, the project focuses research on public-private-nonprofit collaboration, with a particular emphasis on collective choice processes and public service delivery. New trends include:

• The drive for service integration.
• Collaborative planning and decision making.
• The rise of formal and informal networks.

Consortium on Collaborative Governance
The Consortium on Collaborative Governance (CCG) studies how public problems are being solved by sectors working together.

Publications

Tang, Shui-Yan, and Daniel A. Mazmanian. An Agenda for the Study of Collaborative Governance(Working Paper), USC Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise, March 2008. (click here)

Callahan, Richard. "Networks Course Syllabus" and "Teaching Networks for Course Syllabus on Networks" (First place winner of the Networks and Public Management Syllabus Competition, Fels Institute of Governement, University of Pennsylvania), November 2007.

Callahan, Richard. "Governance: The Collision of Politics and Cooperation," Public Administration Review, March/April 2007 (click here).

USC Judith and John Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise. Press Release: New Consortium to Address Challenges of Governance in Contemporary Society, December 18, 2006 (click here) .

Graddy, Elizabeth, and Bin Chen "The Consequences of Partner Selection in Service Delivery Collaborations" Collaborative Governance-October 2006-1 (click here).

Faculty Research Grants

The Bedrosian Center has initiated a program of small summer faculty research grants to encourage work that will contribute to its agenda for one of its research initiatives— Cross Sectoral Collaboration. This initiative seeks to improve understanding on the theory and practice of the growing trends of public-private-nonprofit collaboration in collective choice processes and public service delivery.

Seven grants have been awarded to support new and continuing research at the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development. This series of luncheon presentations took place throughout Fall 2006 and Spring 2007.

Faculty Research Grant Recipients
Callahan | Graddy | Heikkila | Irazabal & Eggebraten | Sellers | Wohlstetter & Kuzin | Yackee

Rich Callahan, "Analyzing the Performance of the Alameda Corridor Public-Private Partnership"
This project will improve the understanding of the performance of the Alameda Corridor public-private partnership. It will build on a case study of the mechanisms that solved the tensions inherent in the political design of public agencies. The 2002 research will be updated and will examine the actual fiscal performance compared to the projected performance anticipated in selling bonds. The research will provide a framework for evaluating public-private partnerships on two dimensions: 1. Governance mechanisms for sustained cooperation in cross-sectoral arrangements; and 2. Fiscal performance of a public-private partnership. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.

Elizabeth Graddy, "The Consequences of Partner Selection in Public-Private Service Delivery Collaborations"
This project explores public-private collaborations that provide publicly funded services, and seeks to understand the connection between the factors that determine partner selection and the subsequently perceived effectiveness of those collaborations. The results are expected to improve the understanding of the implications of the relative weights that organizations place on seeking strategic benefits, reducing transactions costs, as well as other objective in selecting collaborative partners on the effectiveness of the resulting partnerships. Link to full text or Executive Summary.

Eric Heikkila, "Information Footpaths as Neighborhood Networks"
The project will assess whether virtual representations of localized places might foster more robust neighborhood networks for the actual communities residing there. The project will build upon earlier work, and will build an updated Information Footpath (IF) for a subset of the Neighborhood Councils (NCs) in Los Angeles. The study will also compare the downstream activities of those NCs with a control group comprising comparable NCs that are not provided with IFs. The anticipated findings will be an assessment of whether virtual representations of actual places enhance the social capital of those same places, as meansured by the performance characteristics of neighborhood networks. The project will set out a research strategy and framework in the context of relevant scholarly literature. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.

Clara Irazabal and Siri Eggebraten, "The Emperor's New Clothes: Governance, Planning, and Participation in the Los Angeles River Revitalization Process"
A critical examination of governance and planning in the LA River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP) process reveals it as deceptively non-participatory. In fact, the process reveals covert reassertion of a governance structure of top-down, expert-based rational planning. If left unattended, the consequence of this deception and self-deception is likely to result in a multi-million dollar investment in misguided river-oriented development that perpetuates existing problems of environmental injustice, displaces marginalized populations, and fails to meet ecosystem restoration goals. The study probes the characteristics of complex environmental policy-making and offers "meta-collaboration" as a means to design collaborative processes that overcome limitations to facilitating legitimate, effective, and equitable outcomes. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.

Jefferey Sellers, "Local Cross-Sectoral Governance and National Institutions: A 14 Country Comparison"
The research will examine national institutional infrastructures of local governance and the consequences for cross sectoral governance at the local level throughout the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Statistical models will explore how national institutions affect local patterns of power and influence, and which combinations of national and local patterns foster a stronger role for higher level governments in local governance. The project builds on previous analyses of how government relations vary internationally and the consequences for governance. The power of governments within communities will be analyzed locally and globally. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.

Priscilla Wohlstetter and Chuan Ally Kuzin, "Collaborative Governance in Education: Lessons from K-12 Public Schools"
This study synthesizes research on public-private collaborations in the education sector through case studies of charter school partnerships. The charter school context is a rich venue for the study of public-private collaborations; charter schools often start-from-scratch and have fewer resources (money, staff) than traditional public schools. The study highlights lessons learned from the education sector to deepen the knowledge base about how partnerships are formed, the various types of partnerships, and the conditions that foster strong collaboration over time. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.

Susan Webb Yackee, "Agency Rulemaking: Responsiveness Reevaluated"
This study provides the first empirical assessment of one of the most important recent theories concerning the agency policymaking process—that agency policymaking has become “ossified” by the imposition of judicial, legislative, and executive-branch constraints that force agencies to jump through a number of institutionalized hoops prior to promulgating regulations. Preliminary results provide little support for the ossification theory. Instead, the speed at which agencies issue rules is better explained by an agency's institutional constraints and a rule's position within a particular political environment. Link to PowerPoint slides or Executive Summary.