Introduction to the PMR special issue on accountability and legitimacy under collaborative governance

Over the last few decades, public administrations and managers have been under extreme pressure to handle ever more complex societal problems with dwindling resources. One of the promising responses to this double challenge has been collaborative governance. Various dubbed interactive governance, co-creation, participatory governance, network governance or even new public governance, governments and many scholars have proposed collaborative forms as a means to unearth the resources of public and private actors in policymaking and in the design and production of public services (Ansell and Gash 2007; Torfing and Triantafillou 2011; Voorberg, Bekkers, and Tummers 2015; Warren 2009). By including the knowledge of experts and relevant and affected actors in the design of policies and by mobilizing the local experiences, needs and energies of frontline workers and citizens in the coproduction of services, collaborative governance may enhance motivation among civil servants and produce more value for money for citizens (Bennington and Moore 2011). A number of studies have examined the effectiveness and productivity of collaborative governance (Emerson and Nabatchi 2015; Provan and Kenis 2007; Torfing et al. 2012). Yet, collaborative governance is not only about effectiveness. It is also about accountability and legitimacy (Warren 2009)