Collaborative governance in strong state settings: perceived voluntariness and the role of the state in Rural China

Can collaborative governance as understood through Western scholarship be enacted in strong state settings? We explore the perceived nature of voluntary participation and the role of the state in long-standing local efforts at cross-sector collaboration in grassland management in China’s autonomous region of Inner Mongolia. We find that collaborative governance appears to be enacted but with variable levels of collaboration and with limited voluntary participation. We also find that the state plays multiple roles in collaboration governance, some coercive while others enabling of performance and that when voluntary participation is present, it raises levels of collaboration and performance outcomes.