Successful Collaborative Negotiation over Water Policy: Substance versus Process
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141, Issue 9
Abstract
Collaborative negotiation has been widely used for developing water policy. Nevertheless, a serious lacuna remains in the understanding of the factors that determine whether the negotiators in this bargaining process will be able to reach agreement. This paper argues that the literature has focused on the process that is followed in negotiations, to the virtual exclusion of the substance of the issues that are to be resolved. As a consensus can only be reached concerning a change in policy if each party receives compensation for the concessions that it makes, a precondition for collaborative negotiation is that each party must have control over some asset that it can “trade” with the other parties. When this condition is met, it can be said that the process has “substance.” The authors identify a number of situations in which negotiations over water policy may possess this characteristic. However, they also argue that there is a large set of cases in which positive net gains are available, but in which at least one party lacks control over an asset that can be exchanged. In these cases, a number of government policies are investigated that could provide stakeholders with the necessary tradable goods and, therefore, could impart substance to the process. Many situations still remain, however, in which collaboration will lack substance, and stakeholders can be expected either to seek alternative means for pursuing their goals or to waste their effort in endless bargaining.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Zabin Sulema for her able research assistance. The authors have also benefitted from assistance from Bill Bates of Denver Water and Trish Adams of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Initial funding for this research was provided by the Donner Canadian Foundation.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141 • Issue 9 • September 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 1, 2014
Accepted: Dec 16, 2014
Published online: Jan 30, 2015
Discussion open until: Jun 30, 2015
Published in print: Sep 1, 2015
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