Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Collaborative governance plays an important role in local common-pool resource management. Public value can be created and maintained by involving public agencies, nonprofits, and citizen groups in developing effective governing arrangements for conflict resolution from the bottom up. In this paper, we compare two cases in Southern California—one about the Antelope Valley Groundwater Basin and the other about the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin—in which different approaches to collaborative governance explain the divergence in outcomes. One case is characterized by long-standing conflicts among multiple actors and the imposition of a final resolution by a court intervention. The other case is characterized by a collaborative approach by involving stakeholders from the ground up. Our analysis is partly based on qualitative data derived from interviews and documentary sources. We have also drawn on quantitative data. By employing hedonic housing price models that compare the housing prices in the disputed areas to those in less disputed areas, we capture and measure the greater public value associated with a bottom-up approach to conflict resolution in common-pool resource governance.