| Abstract: | Collaboration is an increasingly important topic in the publicadministration and management literatures. A preponderance ofstudies focuses on how managers can build trust between thegovernment and collaborative partners by means of behavioralattributes and managerial skill. In this article, the authorsuggests that stable institutions and local government structurefacilitate collaboration by allowing public managers to morecredibly commit in a policy arena. Using county data on open-spacepolicy, the author finds empirical support for the propositionthat county form of government, along with rules governing debtaccumulation and administrative commitment, increases the breadthof county collaboration in open-space protection. |
