TY - JOUR
T1 - Collaboration or Hierarchy
T2 - Experimental Evidence on Governance Modes and Legitimacy Perceptions
AU - Hillo, Jaakko
AU - Vento, Isak
AU - Sjöblom, Stefan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Public Affairs published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024/11
Y1 - 2024/11
N2 - Amidst growing interest in collaborative governance as means to enhance the legitimacy of public governance, this article investigates public officials' perceptions of this governance mode. Despite theoretical propositions linking collaborative governance to enhanced legitimacy, empirical validation is scarce. Using a factorial survey experiment with 932 public officials in the Finnish central administration, the article investigates if collaborative governance promotes legitimacy compared with hierarchical bureaucracy. The results are clear: collaborative governance does not inherently boost perceived legitimacy, but rather undermines it. This study captures the causal relationships between governance modes, key governance traits (stakeholder opposition/support and majority opposition/support), and perceived legitimacy, thereby challenging prevailing theoretical assumptions about the merits of collaborative governance.
AB - Amidst growing interest in collaborative governance as means to enhance the legitimacy of public governance, this article investigates public officials' perceptions of this governance mode. Despite theoretical propositions linking collaborative governance to enhanced legitimacy, empirical validation is scarce. Using a factorial survey experiment with 932 public officials in the Finnish central administration, the article investigates if collaborative governance promotes legitimacy compared with hierarchical bureaucracy. The results are clear: collaborative governance does not inherently boost perceived legitimacy, but rather undermines it. This study captures the causal relationships between governance modes, key governance traits (stakeholder opposition/support and majority opposition/support), and perceived legitimacy, thereby challenging prevailing theoretical assumptions about the merits of collaborative governance.
KW - collaborative governance
KW - hierarchy
KW - legitimacy
KW - public administrators
KW - survey experiment
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85203422000&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/pa.2952
DO - 10.1002/pa.2952
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85203422000
SN - 1472-3891
VL - 24
JO - Journal of Public Affairs
JF - Journal of Public Affairs
IS - 4
M1 - e2952
ER -