Between win–win and the manufacturing of consent: collaborative governance as a lightning rod in cannabis policy
2025-05-31
Scholarship on collaborative governance emphasises the importance of creating win–win situations as a way of generating policy innovation and effective problem-solving. However, the dynamics of collaboration are often more complicated than discovering mutual gains. An analysis of cannabis legalisation in the San Francisco Bay Area finds that ‘getting to yes’ is often a subtle mixture of finding common ground and the manufacturing of consent. This means that some participants take the role of entrepreneurs in the collaborative process and push discursive dynamics towards a dominant perspective. Exploring the importance of power and politics in collaborative governance, the case illuminates how arena design, discourse and coalition building shape the scope and character of consensus formation.