Deliberation and Decision in Collaborative Governance: A Simulation of Approaches to Mitigate Power Imbalance

The purpose of the present research is to contribute to the task of building theory pertinent to collaborative governance through the use of a novel research methoducomputer simulation using agent-based modeling (ABM). We explore the relationships between a number of characteristics and outcomes of collaborative forums, focusing on the effects of a process of deliberation through which stakeholders build shared understanding of the issue, and of decision-making rules used to control power imbalances among stakeholders. Three measures were used to assess the results of the decision-making process: decision success rate, defined as the percentage of forums that reached a decision; decision acceptability, defined as the mean level of acceptability (across agents) of the alternatives chosen in successful forums; and decision equity, defined as the standard deviation of the level of acceptability (across agents) of the alternatives chosen in successful forums. Based on the results of the computational model, we suggest propositions regarding the positive effect of deliberation on consensus building and decision quality, the advantages of a supermajority requirement, and interactions between decision rules and deliberation. We conclude the article by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of this approach and commenting on the issue of empirical measurement of these issues.